Logical shift

In computer science, a logical shift is a bitwise operation that shifts all the bits of its operand. The two base variants are the logical left shift and the logical right shift. This is further modulated by the number of bit positions a given value shall be shifted, such as shift left by 1 or shift right by n. Unlike an arithmetic shift, a logical shift does not preserve a number's sign bit or distinguish a number's exponent from its significand (mantissa); every bit in the operand is simply moved a given number of bit positions, and the vacant bit-positions are filled, usually with zeros (contrast with a circular shift).

A logical shift is often used when its operand is being treated as a sequence of bits instead of as a number.

Logical shifts can be useful as efficient ways to perform multiplication or division of unsigned integers by powers of two. Shifting left by n bits on a signed or unsigned binary number has the effect of multiplying it by 2ⁿ. Shifting right by n bits on an unsigned binary number has the effect of dividing it by 2ⁿ (rounding towards 0).

Logical right shift differs from arithmetic right shift. Thus, many languages have different operators for them. For example, in Java and JavaScript, the logical right shift operator is >>>, but the arithmetic right shift operator is >>. (Java has only one left shift operator (<<), because left shift via logic and arithmetic have the same effect.)

The programming languages C, C++, and Go, however, have only one right shift operator, >>. Most C and C++ implementations, and Go, choose which right shift to perform depending on the type of integer being shifted: signed integers are shifted using the arithmetic shift, and unsigned integers are shifted using the logical shift.

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