Finding odd/even numbers with JavaScript Bitwise Operators

I wanted to share another technique for determining if a number is odd/even in JavaScript - or any other programming language. The common solution to this problem is to use the modulus (%) operator:

With the modulus operator it's as simple as:

var isOdd = number % 2;
var isEven = !(number % 2);

However, you can achieve the same result by using the bitwise operators and ANDing the number with 1.

var isOdd = number & 1;
var isEven = !(number & 1);

Both produce the same result, but the bitwise approach will be faster if you care about micro-optimisations.

How does this work?

When you AND two numbers together the operation returns 1 if the matching bits from both operands are 1.

So let's take a simple example, is the decimal number 10 odd?

First convert the decimal number to binary: 0000 1010. Now let's AND that number with decimal 1, which is 0000 0001 when converted to binary.

     0000 1010   // decimal 10
AND  0000 0001   // decimal 1
  =  0000 0000

If the AND operation produces 0 the number is even - as in the previous example.

Let's look at another example using an odd decimal number:

     0000 1011   // decimal 11
AND  0000 0001   // decimal 1
  =  0000 0001

If the AND operation produces 1 the number is odd - as in the previous example.

Conclusion

Admittedly this isn't revolutionary, but it's good to understand how to use Bitwise operators and what type of problems they can solve.

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How does this work?

Conclusion