Bit operations

Here are a few exercises on bit operations.

Running the solutions

Edit exercises.py. Then load the code in Python interpreter:

python3 -i exercises.py

>>> hex(replace_lowest_byte(0xabcd, 12))
'0x0'

Running the tests

I recommend pytest. You can install it using:

pip3 install --user pytest

Then just run:

pytest --doctest-modules -v exercises.py

This will run all the examples in the file.

Cheatsheet

and: a & b
or:  a | b
xor: a ^ b
not: ~a

shift left:  a << b
shift right: a >> b

You can write the numbers as hexadecimal and binary:

0x12EF, 0xabcd, 0b10101010

Octal (Oo666) is also supported but you shouldn't need it.

Printing the numbers to hexadecimal and binary:

>>> hex(127)
0x7f

>>> bin(42)
0b101010

You can also insert _ for readability:

0b1010_1111_0000_0001

Useful links

• Bit Manipulation video by Make School
• HackerEarth: Basics of bit manipulation