bitwise.shiftRight

Description

Performs a sign-propagating right bit shift operation, moving all bits to the right by the specified number of positions. The sign bit is copied to fill the leftmost positions.

Syntax 

flex.bitwise.shiftRight(a, positions)

Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |———–|——|———-|————-| | a | number (integer) | Yes | The value to shift | | positions | number (integer) | Yes | Number of positions to shift right |

Returns

Type: number (integer)

The result of shifting the bits right by the specified positions, with sign extension.

Examples

Example 1: Basic Right Shift 

RETURN flex.bitwise.shiftRight(20, 2) AS result

Output:

result
------
5

(Binary: 10100 » 2 = 00101 = 5)

Example 2: Divide by Power of Two 

WITH 56 AS value
RETURN 
    flex.bitwise.shiftRight(value, 1) AS div2,
    flex.bitwise.shiftRight(value, 2) AS div4,
    flex.bitwise.shiftRight(value, 3) AS div8

Output:

div2 | div4 | div8
-----|------|-----
28   | 14   | 7

(Right shift by n is equivalent to integer division by 2^n)

Example 3: Sign Extension with Negative Numbers 

RETURN flex.bitwise.shiftRight(-8, 2) AS result

Output:

result
------
-2

(Sign bit is preserved in right shift)

Example 4: Extracting Higher Bits 

WITH 255 AS value  // 11111111
RETURN flex.bitwise.shiftRight(value, 4) AS upperNibble

Output:

upperNibble
-----------
15

(Extracts upper 4 bits: 00001111 = 15)

Notes

  • Operates on 32-bit signed integers in JavaScript
  • Uses arithmetic (sign-propagating) right shift
  • Right shift by n is equivalent to integer division by 2^n (truncated toward negative infinity)
  • Sign bit is copied to fill vacated positions (sign extension)
  • Bits shifted off the right are discarded
  • Useful for division by powers of 2 and extracting bit fields

See Also