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Difference between >>> and >>
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I'm without my Java reference book and I'm having a tough time finding an answer with Google.
What is the difference between the ">>" and ">>>" operators in Java?
int value = 0x0100;
int result = (value >> 8);
System.out.println("(value >> 8) = " + result); // Prints: "(value >> 8) = 1"
result = (value >>> 8);
System.out.println("(value >>> 8) = " + result); // Prints: "(value >>> 8) = 1"
>>>
is logical shift, >>
is arithmetic shift.
Signed integers use the high-order bit to denote sign.
So >>
preserves the sign, while >>>
doesn't. This is why >>
is referred to as the arithmetic shift and >>>
is the logical shift.
This way, you can do (assuming 32-bit integers) the following:
-10 >> 1
yields -5 (0xFFFFFFF6 >> 1
yields 0xFFFFFFFB - notice the high-order bit stays the same.)
-10 >>> 1
yields 2147483643 (0xFFFFFFF6 >>> 1
yields 0x7FFFFFFB - notice all of the bits were shifted, so the high-order bit is now zero. The number is no longer negative according to twos-complement arithemetic.)
For positive integers, >>
and >>>
act the same, since the high-order bit is already zero.
It also explains why there is no need for a <<<
operator. Since the sign would be trashed by sliding the bits to the left, it would map to no reasonable arithmetic operation.
From Java Notes: Bitwise Operators:
n >> p (right shift)
Shifts the bits of n right p positions. If n is a 2's complement signed number, the sign bit is shifted into the high-order positions.
Example: 5 >> 2 = 1
n >>> p (right shift)
Shifts the bits of n right p positions. Zeros are shifted into the high-order positions.
Example: -4 >>> 28 = 15
The correct answer has been posted more than once, but not from an authoritative source.
This is from the JLS §15.19 Shift Operators:
The shift operators include left shift <<
, signed right shift >>
, and unsigned right shift >>>
; they are syntactically left-associative (they group left-to-right). The left-hand operand of a shift operator is the value to be shifted; the right-hand operand specifies the shift distance.
...
The value of n>>s
is n
right-shifted s
bit positions with sign-extension. The resulting value is ⌊n/2s⌋. For nonnegative values of n
, this is equivalent to truncating integer division, as computed by the integer division operator /
, by two to the power s
.
The value of n>>>s
is n
right-shifted s
bit positions with zero-extension. If n
is positive, then the result is the same as that of n>>s
; if n
is negative, the result is equal to that of the expression (n>>s)+(2<<~s)
if the type of the left-hand operand is int
, and to the result of the expression (n>>s)+(2L<<~s)
if the type of the left-hand operand is long
. The added term (2<<~s)
or (2L<<~s)
cancels out the propagated sign bit. (Note that, because of the implicit masking of the right-hand operand of a shift operator, ~s
as a shift distance is equivalent to 31-s
when shifting an int
value and to 63-s
when shifting a long
value.)
For positive numbers, there is no difference. Negative (two's complement) numbers will be filled with zeros for >>> and ones for >>.
1010 0110 >>>2 = 0010 1001
1010 0110 >> 2 = 1110 1001
The >> is an arithmetic shift, which preserves the sign bit in any 'vacant' bits. The other is a logical shift which fills the vacant spots with zeroes.
some info
the >> operator preserves the leftmost bits. The leftmost bits are filled with the previous content. This is to do with sign extension. In this case there is a 1 at the left and it is preserved. If you do not want to keep the 1 to the left, use the >>> operator which shifts 0's into the leftmost bits
It has to do with signed value math. The >>>
pills in zeros for the hight order bits, the >>
preservers the sign bit and pulls it in.
The arithmetic shift >> is division by two for signed integers, while the logical shift >>> is division by two for unsigned numbers (if you interpret the bit pattern in a signed Java int as an unsigned integer).