Double Greater Than Sign (>>) in Java?

Question

What does the double greater than sign mean in Java? I had never seen it used befor but came accross it today and I tried googling it, but google hates punctuation (which is really annoying some times).

Answer 1

This is the bit shift operator. Documentation

The signed left shift operator "<<" shifts a bit pattern to the left, and the signed right shift operator ">>" shifts a bit pattern to the right. The bit pattern is given by the left-hand operand, and the number of positions to shift by the right-hand operand. The unsigned right shift operator ">>>" shifts a zero into the leftmost position, while the leftmost position after ">>" depends on sign extension.

Answer 2

That is a right bit shift.

Answer 3

I believe it's the bit shifting operator. As in moves all 1s and 0s one position right. (I think you can imagine what << does... :) )

Answer 4

It shifts the bits...

heres some info on java operators

For example

101  = 5
Shifting out the right "1"
10 = 2
Shifint the other way...
1010 = 10

Answer 5

As others have noted, this is the right bit-shift. You'll see it in many of the so-called "C-style" languages.

For massively detailed information about bit-shifting provided by your fellow StackOverflow users, check out a question I posted ages ago, which helped me finally get it: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Bit-Shifting. (The folks who posted there were kind enough to go into great depth on the subject, which I hope will help you as well.)

Answer 6

The >> operator is the bitwise right shift operator.

Simple example:

int i = 4;
System.out.println(i >> 1); // prints 2 - since shift right is equal to divide by 2
System.out.println(i << 1); // prints 8 - since shift left is equal to multiply by 2

Negative numbers behave the same:

int i = -4;
System.out.println(i >> 1); // prints -2
System.out.println(i << 1); // prints -8

Generally speaking - i << k is equivalent to i*(2^k), while i >> k is equivalent to i/(2^k).

In all cases (just as with any other arithmetic operator), you should always make sure you do not overflow your data type.