The right shift operator >> shifts the bits of an integer to the right by the specified number of positions. Bits shifted beyond the right side are discarded.

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    unsigned int number = 20;

    printf("number >> 1 = %u\n", number >> 1);
    printf("number >> 2 = %u\n", number >> 2);

    return 0;
}

Example Output #

number >> 1 = 10
number >> 2 = 5

Explanation #

The value 20 in binary is:

00010100

Shifting it right by one position:

00010100 >> 1
00001010

The resulting value is 10.

Shifting it right by two positions:

00010100 >> 2
00000101

The resulting value is 5.

For an unsigned integer, right shifting by n positions corresponds to integer division by 2^n, with the fractional part discarded.

For signed integers, the result of a right shift of a negative value is implementation-defined, so unsigned integers are used here to make the behavior unambiguous.