Shift operators

January 25, 2024

Operators

The right operand in a shift expression must have integer type or be an untyped constant representable by a value of type uint.

A bunch of examples demonstrating this follow in the spec, so I won’t provide my own.

… If the left operand of a non-constant shift expression is an untyped constant, it is first implicitly converted to the type it would assume if the shift expression were replaced by its left operand alone.

So what are we actually talking about here? This:

m := int64(3)
x := 5 << m // A non-constant shift expression, with an untyped const as the left operand

So what is x’s type here? That’s what this sentence is describing when it says “it is first implicitly converted to the type it would assume if the shift expression were replaced by its left operand alone”.

In other words, x’s type should match the type of the expression:

y := 5

And indeed it does:

var m = int64(3)
x := 5 << m
y := 5
fmt.Printf("%T %T\n", x, y) // int int
var a [1024]byte
var s uint = 33

// The results of the following examples are given for 64-bit ints.
var i = 1<<s                   // 1 has type int
var j int32 = 1<<s             // 1 has type int32; j == 0
var k = uint64(1<<s)           // 1 has type uint64; k == 1<<33
var m int = 1.0<<s             // 1.0 has type int; m == 1<<33
var n = 1.0<<s == j            // 1.0 has type int32; n == true
var o = 1<<s == 2<<s           // 1 and 2 have type int; o == false
var p = 1<<s == 1<<33          // 1 has type int; p == true
var u = 1.0<<s                 // illegal: 1.0 has type float64, cannot shift
var u1 = 1.0<<s != 0           // illegal: 1.0 has type float64, cannot shift
var u2 = 1<<s != 1.0           // illegal: 1 has type float64, cannot shift
var v1 float32 = 1<<s          // illegal: 1 has type float32, cannot shift
var v2 = string(1<<s)          // illegal: 1 is converted to a string, cannot shift
var w int64 = 1.0<<33          // 1.0<<33 is a constant shift expression; w == 1<<33
var x = a[1.0<<s]              // panics: 1.0 has type int, but 1<<33 overflows array bounds
var b = make([]byte, 1.0<<s)   // 1.0 has type int; len(b) == 1<<33

// The results of the following examples are given for 32-bit ints,
// which means the shifts will overflow.
var mm int = 1.0<<s            // 1.0 has type int; mm == 0
var oo = 1<<s == 2<<s          // 1 and 2 have type int; oo == true
var pp = 1<<s == 1<<33         // illegal: 1 has type int, but 1<<33 overflows int
var xx = a[1.0<<s]             // 1.0 has type int; xx == a[0]
var bb = make([]byte, 1.0<<s)  // 1.0 has type int; len(bb) == 0

Quotes from The Go Programming Language Specification Version of August 2, 2023


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