The Bitwise NOT
Also called the bitwise complement, the unary NOT operator, ~, inverts all of the
bits of its operand. For example, the number 42, which has the following bit pattern:
00101010 becomes 11010101 after the NOT operator is applied.
The Bitwise AND
The AND operator, &, produces a 1 bit if both operands are also 1. A zero is
produced in all other cases. Here is an example:
00101010 42
&00001111 15
--------------
00001010 10
The Bitwise OR
The OR operator, |, combines bits such that if either of the bits in the operands
is a 1, then the resultant bit is a 1, as shown here:
00101010 42
| 00001111 15
--------------
00101111 47