In Java, >> is called the right shift
operator. It moves the bits in a variable to the right. >> 1
moves the bits one place, >> 2 moves them two places and so on. If
you start off with a value such as decimal 15, which is binary 1111,
>> 1 changes it to binary 111 or decimal 7. >> 2 moves all
the bits two places to the right and converts it to binary 11 or decimal
3. You can see what I mean in the example below:
Java > cat prog77.java
public class prog77
{
public static void main (String args[])
{
int x = 15;
System.out.println("x = " + x);
int y = x >> 1;
System.out.println("x >> 1 = " + y);
y = x >> 2;
System.out.println("x >> 2 = " + y);
y = x >> 3;
System.out.println("x >> 3 = " + y);
y = x >> 4;
System.out.println("x >> 4 = " + y);
}
}
Java > javac prog77.java
Java > java prog77
x = 15
x >> 1 = 7
x >> 2 = 3
x >> 3 = 1
x >> 4 = 0
Java >
