C Bitwise Operators Note:  This is a more  advanced  topic in C. If you are new to programming, don't worry if it feels tricky at first - bitwise operators are mainly used in special cases like system programming, hardware control, or performance optimizations. In C,  bitwise operators  let you work directly with the  bits  (the 1s and 0s) that make up numbers in binary form. Every integer in a computer is stored in  binary , which means it is represented using bits (binary digits) that are either 0 or 1. Bitwise operators allow you to compare, combine, shift, or flip these bits. Note:  Bitwise operations only work on integer types (such as  int ,  char , or  long ). List of Bitwise Operators Operator Name Description & AND Sets each bit to 1 if both bits are 1 | OR Sets each bit to 1 if at least one of the bits is 1 ^ XOR Sets each bit to 1 if only one of the bits is 1 ~ NOT Inverts all the bits << Left Shift ...