Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art

PROCESSING: CREATIVE CODING AND COMPUTATIONAL ART
768
Here is the operation expressed in base 2 (remember, only when both parallel bits are 1 is
the result 1; otherwise it’s 0):
100
& 110
100
Surprisingly, this result is still 4 when you convert it back to base 10. Pretty odd, huh?
Here’s an example that compares the parallel bits of the binary values of 126 and 3498,
again using the bitwise AND operator:
And here’s the operation expressed in base 2:
000001111110
& 110110101010
000000101010
The simplifies to 101010 if zeros on the left are removed.
While adding zeros to the left of the number has no effect, adding zeros to
the right of a binary number will change the value, so don’t do it.
| is the bitwise OR operator, also called inclusive OR. It operates by evaluating whether
either of the two parallel bits is a one, in which case it evaluates to a one; otherwise the
result is a zero. (You can also think about this as two parallel zeros equals a zero.)
This next example compares the parallel bits of 4 and 6 using the OR operator:
And here’s the operation expressed in base 2:
100
| 110
110 = 6
This example compares the parallel bits of the binary values of 126 and 3498, again using
the bitwise OR operator:
And here’s the operation expressed in base 2:
000001111110
| 110110101010
110111111110