What is the purpose of bitwise operators in the C language?

The bitwise operators in C language are used to manipulate binary bits, performing logical operations and shifting bits of variables one by one.

There are several main types of bitwise operators.

1. Bitwise AND (&): Performs a logical AND operation on each bit of two binary numbers, resulting in a 1 only if both corresponding bits are 1.
2. Bitwise OR (|): performs an OR operation on each bit of two binary numbers, resulting in a 1 if either of the corresponding bits is 1.
3. Bitwise XOR (^): Performs an exclusive OR operation on each bit of two binary numbers, resulting in 1 only if the corresponding bits are different.
4. Bitwise complement (~): perform a bitwise operation on each bit of a binary number, changing 0 to 1 and 1 to 0.
5. Left shift (<<): moves all of the bits of a binary number to the left by a specified number of positions, filling in the right with zeros.
6. Right shift (>>): Moving all the bits of a binary number to the right by a specified number of positions, filling the left side with the sign bit (for signed numbers) or with 0.

Bit operators are commonly used in programming for tasks such as bit manipulation, bit masking, and bit flags. They can efficiently accomplish specific operations like setting or clearing certain bits.