What does bitwise complement (~) do?

What does bitwise complement (~) do?

• A. Inverts all bits
• B. Shifts bits to the right
• C. Flips every bit
• D. Multiplies by 2

Answer: (C)

Bitwise complement flips every bit in the value. For each position, 0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0. This operator is commonly described as flipping every bit, which exactly captures what it does to the binary representation. For example, on an 8-bit value, 00001010 becomes 11110101. In two’s complement, this operation is equivalent to -x - 1, illustrating that it’s a bitwise not, not a shift or a multiplication. It does not move bits around or scale the number, which rules out shifting or multiplying.

Bitwise complement flips every bit in the value. For each position, 0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0. This operator is commonly described as flipping every bit, which exactly captures what it does to the binary representation. For example, on an 8-bit value, 00001010 becomes 11110101. In two’s complement, this operation is equivalent to -x - 1, illustrating that it’s a bitwise not, not a shift or a multiplication. It does not move bits around or scale the number, which rules out shifting or multiplying.