learnt during advent-of-code at the recurse-center.
you use bitwise operations to look at a specific section of a binary sequence (i.e: like chop off the ends).
for example:
data -> 101101
mask ->
the digits you don’t want to change you set to 0 and the ones you care about you set to 1 in the mask.
then you bit shift to perform the operation.
General way to implement Bitmasking:
Create the list or array you wish to manipulate with bitmasking. Establish the list or array’s size to determine how many bits you’ll need for the binary representation. Check the corresponding bits for each index, then carry out the required operation based on their values. This could entail performing an operation, including or excluding entries from a subset, or both. Repeat the above operation in a loop until every element of the list has been checked. Utilize the outcomes as necessary for your specific application.