`bitshift`

Shifts the bits of an integer left or right.

Category: Language Fundamentals > Operators and Elementary Operations

Syntax

C = bitshift(A, k)

Shifts A by k bit positions: left for positive k, right for negative k.

Description

Shifting left by one doubles the value and shifting right by one halves it, discarding the fraction. So bitshift(1, 3) is 8 and bitshift(16, -2) is 4. Bits pushed out beyond the width of the class are lost: bitshift(uint8(255), 1) is 254.

Shifts make quick work of powers of two and of packing several small fields into one integer.

Input arguments

A: Array of nonnegative integers.
k: Number of positions. Positive shifts left, negative shifts right.

Output arguments

C: Shifted values, of the same class as A.

Example

bitshift(1, 3)
bitshift(16, -2)
bitshift(uint8(1), [1 2 3])
bitshift(uint8(255), 1)

Output

ans = 8
ans = 4
ans = 1×3 uint8 row vector

   2   4   8
ans = uint8
   254

bitshift