Left shift (<<) - JavaScript | MDN
Try it
const a = 5; // 00000000000000000000000000000101
const b = 2; // 00000000000000000000000000000010
console.log(a << b); // 00000000000000000000000000010100
// Expected output: 20
Syntax
Description
The << operator is overloaded for two types of operands: number and BigInt. For numbers, the operator returns a 32-bit integer. For BigInts, the operator returns a BigInt. It first coerces both operands to numeric values and tests the types of them. It performs BigInt left shift if both operands become BigInts; otherwise, it converts both operands to 32-bit integers and performs number left shift. A TypeError is thrown if one operand becomes a BigInt but the other becomes a number.
The operator operates on the left operand's bit representation in two's complement. For example, 9 << 2 yields 36:
9 (base 10): 00000000000000000000000000001001 (base 2)
--------------------------------
9 << 2 (base 10): 00000000000000000000000000100100 (base 2) = 36 (base 10)
Bitwise a 32-bit integer x to the left by y bits yields x * 2 ** y. So for example, 9 << 3 is equivalent to 9 * (2 ** 3) = 9 * (8) = 72.
If the left operand is a number with more than 32 bits, it will get the most significant bits discarded. For example, the following integer with more than 32 bits will be converted to a 32-bit integer:
Before: 11100110111110100000000000000110000000000001 After: 10100000000000000110000000000001
The right operand will be converted to an unsigned 32-bit integer and then taken modulo 32, so the actual shift offset will always be a positive integer between 0 and 31, inclusive. For example, 100 << 32 is the same as 100 << 0 (and produces 100) because 32 modulo 32 is 0.
Warning:
You may see people using << 0 to truncate numbers to integers. Left shifting any number x by 0 returns x converted to a 32-bit integer, which additionally removes leading bits for numbers outside the range -2147483648 to 2147483647. Use Math.trunc() instead.
For BigInts, there's no truncation. Conceptually, understand positive BigInts as having an infinite number of leading 0 bits, and negative BigInts having an infinite number of leading 1 bits.
Examples
Using left shift
js
9 << 3; // 72
// 9 * (2 ** 3) = 9 * (8) = 72
9n << 3n; // 72n
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification # sec-left-shift-operator |