Bitwise Left Shift

The << operator will perform a bitwise “left shift,” where the left operand’s value is moved left by the number of bits given by the right operand.

# 2 = 0b10
2 << 2
# Out: 8
# 8 = 0b1000

bin(2 << 2)
# Out: 0b1000

Performing a left bit shift of 1 is equivalent to multiplication by 2:

7 << 1
# Out: 14

Performing a left bit shift of n is equivalent to multiplication by 2**n:

3 << 4
# Out: 48