The bitwise AND operator & performs an AND operation on each corresponding bit of two integer operands. A bit in the result is 1 only when both corresponding bits are 1.

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    int a = 12;
    int b = 10;

    printf("a & b = %d\n", a & b);

    return 0;
}

Example Output #

a & b = 8

Explanation #

The values are represented in binary as:

12 = 1100
10 = 1010
     ----
      1000

The & operator compares each pair of corresponding bits:

Therefore:

a & b

produces binary 1000, which is decimal 8.

The bitwise AND operator operates on the individual bits of integer operands.