Using a bitmask in C#

user_127257 0
Viewed 172441

Let's say I have the following

int susan = 2; //0010
int bob = 4; //0100
int karen = 8; //1000

and I pass 10 (8 + 2) as a parameter to a method and I want to decode this to mean susan and karen

I know that 10 is 1010

but how can I do some logic to see if a specific bit is checked as in

if (condition_for_karen) // How to quickly check whether effective karen bit is 1

Right now all i can think of is to check whether the number i passed is 

14 // 1110
12 // 1100
10 // 1010
8 //  1000

When I have a larger number of actual bits in my real world scenario, this seems impractical, what is a better way using a mask to just check whether or not I meet the condition for just karen?

I can think of shifting left then back then shifting right then back to clear bits other than the one I'm interested in, but this also seems overly complex.

bitmask c#
6 Answers

Easy Way:

[Flags]
public enum MyFlags {
    None = 0,
    Susan = 1,
    Alice = 2,
    Bob = 4,
    Eve = 8
}

To set the flags use logical "or" operator |:

MyFlags f = new MyFlags();
f = MyFlags.Alice | MyFlags.Bob;

And to check if a flag is included use HasFlag:

if(f.HasFlag(MyFlags.Alice)) { /* true */}
if(f.HasFlag(MyFlags.Eve)) { /* false */}
user_45054460

One other really good reason to use a bitmask vs individual bools is as a web developer, when integrating one website to another, we frequently need to send parameters or flags in the querystring. As long as all of your flags are binary, it makes it much simpler to use a single value as a bitmask than send multiple values as bools. I know there are otherways to send data (GET, POST, etc.), but a simple parameter on the querystring is most of the time sufficient for nonsensitive items. Try to send 128 bool values on a querystring to communicate with an external site. This also gives the added ability of not pushing the limit on url querystrings in browsers

user_4565180
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