What does "<<" mean in Java??

[rebolli]

Hello,

Could anyone tell me what the syntax "<<" does in java?
For example, if I do the operation 1 << 4 I'll get the output 16. How does that work?

Couldn't find this on google cause the characters "<<" are ignored..

 

[essellar]

It's a bitwise left shift. In your example, you start out with a one, which can be represented in binary as: 00000000 00000001

then you tell the computer to shift the bits leftwards four times, yielding this binary number: 00000000 00010000

10000 in binary is 16 in decimal.

 

[rebolli]

Ah okay! Thank you!