This is a byte.

A byte consists of 8 bits. Any number can be represented as a sum of twos in different powers (binary).

For example, the number 4 can be represented as 00000100:

But how did 0 and 1 become 4?

Blue cells can contain logical 0 or 1. 0 and 1 only indicate the state of the bit.

(0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2² + 0 + 0 = 2 · 2 = 4)

Another example:

The number 5 can be represented as 00000101:

0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2² + 0 + 2⁰ = 4 + 1 = 5 (х⁰ = 1)

Bitwise shift operators move the entire sequence of bits to the right or left, allowing multiplication (<<) or division (>>) by a power of two.

Shift left

Shift the number one bit to the left:

After the shift operation, the value of the variable became equal to 8 because 00001000 it's the same as 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 2³ + 0 + 0 + 0 = 2 · 2 · 2 = 8.

Next example:

Shift the number one bit to the left:

After the shift operation, all logical 1 are shifted to the left (2³ + 2¹ = 8 + 2 = 10), and it turns out that number 10 was obtained from the number 5 after the shift, without using the multiplication operation (*).

Shift right

Shift the number one bit to the right:

1, which was under 2⁰ "came out", so after the shift operation to the right, the number 5 will become the number 2.

So, shifting one bit to the right multiplies the variable by 2, shifting one bit to the left divides the variable by 2.