Bits, Bytes, Bitwise and Shift Operations

Java Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Bits, Bytes, Bitwise and Shift Operations

This chapter provides tutorial notes and tutorial examples on bits, bytes and bitwise operations. Topics include bits and bytes as storage units; 'byte' data type and (byte) casting; bitwise operations; shift operations.

What Are Bits and Bytes

"byte" Data Type and Implicit Casting

Operations on "byte" Data Type Values

Bitwise Operations on "byte" Values

Bitwise Operations on "byte" Values - Example Program

Shift Operations - Left, Right or Unsigned Right

Takeaways:

Bit is the smallest storage unit that can only store two possible values: 0 and 1.
Byte is a storage unit that holds 8 bits.
"byte" is a primitive data type in Java. A "byte" variable can hold an integer in the range of -128 to 127.
To assign values to "byte" variables, you need to cast original values to "byte" data type implicitly or explicitly (using "(byte)").
"byte" variables can participate any arithmetic and comparison operations. But their values will be converted to "int" data type before the operation.
Bitwise operations are defined for "int" data type, not for "byte".
Shift operations are defined for "int" data type, not for "byte".