C/C++ Program to find bitwise OR of two decimal numbers

In this post, we will learn how to find bitwise OR of two decimal numbers in C/C++.

The simplest way to find bitwise OR of two decimal numbers is to use bitwise OR ( | ) operator.

Syntax of bitwise OR operator

int a = 10;
int b = 30;
c = a | b;

The binary OR of a and b is in c.

#include<stdio.h>

int main() {

	int a, b, c;
	printf("Enter a: ");
	scanf("%d", &a);
	printf("Enter b: ");
	scanf("%d", &b);

	c = a | b;

	printf("%d OR %d = %d", a, b, c);

}

Output

Enter a: 3
Enter b: 4
3 OR 4 = 7

Bitwise OR without using bitwise OR ( | ) operator

Now, you may need to calculate the bitwise OR of a number without using ‘|’. We will first convert the inputs to binary form and then OR the number using a loop.

Steps

1. Let A and B be the input.
2. Initialize 3 integer arrays – b1[], b2[], b3[] of size 64.
3. Covert A to binary string and store the result in b1[].
4. Convert B to binary string and store the result in b2[].
5. Read each bit of b1[] and b2[] and perform bitwise OR. if anyone of b1[i] or b2[] is 1, then set b3[i] to 1. Otherwise, set b3[i] to 0.
6. Convert b3[] to decimal and store the decimal value in an integer C.
7. The bitwise OR of A and B is in C.

#include<stdio.h>

// converts binary string stored in b[]
// to decimal integer
int binary_to_decimal(int* b) {
	int n = 0, i;
	for (i = 63; i >= 0; --i) {
		if (b[i] == 1) {
			n = n * 2 + 1;
		}
		else {
			n = n * 2;
		}
	}
	return n;
}

// converts n to binary and store the binary
// string in b[]
// the least significant bit is at 0 position if b[]
void decimal_to_binary(int* b, int n) {
	int r, i = 0;
	while (n > 0) {
		r = n % 2;
		n = n / 2;
		b[i] = r;
		++i;
	}
}

// return bitwise OR of a and b
int bitwiseOR(int a, int b) {

	int c, i;
	int b1[64] = { 0 }, b2[64] = { 0 }, b3[64] = { 0 };

	// convert a to binary and store the binary string in b1[]
	decimal_to_binary(b1, a);

	// convert b to binary and store the binary string in b2[]
	decimal_to_binary(b2, b);

	// performing bitwise OR on b1[] and b2[]
	// and storing the result in b3[]
	for (i = 0; i < 64; ++i) {
		if (b1[i] == 1 || b2[i] == 1)
			b3[i] = 1;
	}

	// converting b3[] to decimal
	c = binary_to_decimal(b3);

	return c;
}

int main() {

	int a, b;
	printf("Enter a: ");
	scanf("%d", &a);
	printf("Enter b: ");
	scanf("%d", &b);


	printf("%d OR %d = %d", a, b, bitwiseOR(a, b));

}

Output

Enter a: 10
Enter b: 3
10 OR 3 = 11