Exploring C++20: The Programmer's Introduction to C++

© Ray Lischner 2020

R. LischnerExploring C++20https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5961-0_67

67. Working with Bits

Ray Lischner¹ 

(1)

Ellicott City, MD, USA

 

This Exploration begins a series of Explorations that cover more advanced topics in the C++ type system. The series kicks off with an examination of how to work with individual bits. This Exploration begins with operators that manipulate integers at the bit level, then introduces bitfields—a completely different way of working with bits. The final topic is the bitset class template, which lets you work with bitsets of any size.

Integer As a Set of Bits

A common idiom in computer programming is to treat an integer as a bitmask. The bits can represent a set of small integers, such that a value n is ...