Test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

Binary Shifts

A binary shift is a technique for performing multiplication or division on a binary number.

Binary shift

Binary shift

  • In a binary shift, each digit is moved one column to the left or the right.
  • Extra 0 bits are added to the start or end of the binary number to fill any missing spaces.
Left binary shift

Left binary shift

  • In a left binary shift, each digit is moved one place to the left.
    • This has the effect of multiplying the number by two.
  • You must take care, when performing a left shift, that there is no overflow error (where we run out of space to store the last digit of the number).
Right binary shift

Right binary shift

  • In a right binary shift, each digit is moved one place to the right.
    • This has the effect of dividing the number by two.
  • You must take care when performing a right shift that no data is shifted off the right hand side. This can cause a loss of accuracy.
Jump to other topics
1

Computer Systems

1.1

Systems Architecture

1.2

Memory & Storage

1.3

Computer Networks, Connections & Protocols

1.4

Network Security

1.5

Systems Software

1.6

Ethical, Legal, Cultural & Environmental Concern

2

Computational Thinking, Algorithms & Programming

2.1

Algorithms

2.2

Programming Fundamentals

2.3

Producing Robust Programs

2.4

Boolean Logic

2.5

Programming Languages & IDEs

Practice questions on Binary Shifts

Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
Answer all questions on Binary Shifts

Unlock your full potential with Seneca Premium

  • Unlimited access to 10,000+ open-ended exam questions

  • Mini-mock exams based on your study history

  • Unlock 800+ premium courses & e-books

Get started with Seneca Premium