how do i manipulate bits in python

Question

In C I could, for example, zero out bit #10 in a 32-bit unsigned value like so:

unsigned long value = 0xdeadbeef;
value &= ~(1<<10);

How do I do that in Python?

Answer 1

For manipulating the bits, there is a special kind of sets of  bitwise operators in Python like

 

OPERATOR	DESCRIPTION	SYNTAX
&	Bitwise AND	x & y
|	Bitwise OR	x | y
~	Bitwise NOT	~x
^	Bitwise XOR	x ^ y
>>	Bitwise right shift	x>>
<<	Bitwise left shift	x<<

Consider the below example :

To perform left shift in python be careful as Python integers aren't fixed-width so we have to use bit masks to obtain the low order bits.

(B << 5) & 0xffffffff