Java right-shift operator

The right-shift operator, >>, shifts all of the bits in a value to the right a specified number of times. Here is the general form to use the right-shift operator in Java:

value >> num

Here, num specifies the number of positions to right-shift the value in "value," i.e., the >> moves all of the bits in the specified value to the right by the number of bit positions specified by "num."

The following code fragment shifts the value 32 to the right by two positions, resulting in a being set to 8:

int a = 32;
a = a >> 2;

When a value has bits that are "shifted off," those bits are lost. For example, the next code fragment shifts the value 35 to the right two positions, which causes the two low-order bits to be lost, resulting again in a being set to 8:

int a = 35;
a = a >> 2;

Looking at the same operation in binary shows more clearly how this happens:

0010001135
>>2
000010008

It divides the value by two and tosses the remainder after each shift to the right. In some circumstances, you can use this to divide an integer by 2 with high performance.

The previous contents of the top bit are filled in to the top (leftmost) bits exposed by the right shift when you shift to the right. When negative numbers are shifted to the right, the sign is maintained thanks to a technique known as sign extension. For instance, the binary equivalent of -8 >> 1 is -4.

11111000-8
>>1
11111100-4

It is interesting to note that if you shift -1 right, the result always remains -1, since sign extension keeps bringing in more ones in the high-order bits.

When shifting values to the right, sign-extending them isn't always a good idea. The following program, for instance, transforms a byte value into a hexadecimal string representation: To enable the value to be used as an index into the array of hexadecimal characters, the shifted value is masked by ANDing it with 0x0f to eliminate any sign-extended bits.

Java Right Shift Operator Example

Here is an example program that helps you understand the concept of the right-shift operator in Java:

public class JavaProgram {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      char hex[] = {
         '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7',
         '8', '9', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'
      };
      
      byte b = (byte) 0xf1;
      
      System.out.println("b = 0x" + hex[(b >> 4) & 0x0f] + hex[b & 0x0f]);
   }
}

When the above Java program is compiled and executed, it will produce the following output:

java right shift

Advantages of the right-shift operator in Java

Disadvantages of the right-shift operator in Java

Java Online Test


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