Bitwise Left Shift and Right Shift Operators:  <<, >>

shift-expression :

additive-expression
*shift-expression * **<<**additive-expression
*shift-expression * **>>**additive-expression

The bitwise shift operators shift their first operand left (<<) or right (>>) by the number of positions the second operand specifies.

For more information, see bitwise-AND, bitwise-exclusive-OR, bitwise-inclusive-OR, and one's complement.

Example

In the following example, the right shift operator moves the data bits two positions to the right, thus changing the value of nNumA:

// Example of the bitwise right shift operator
int nNumA=8;    // beginning value is 8

nNumA >> 2;     // ending value is 2