<<= Operator

Performs an arithmetic left shift on the value of a variable and assigns the result back to the variable.

variable <<= amount

Parts

variable

Required. Variable of data type Byte, Short, Integer, or Long.

amount

Required. Numeric expression of a data type that widens to Integer.

Remarks

Arithmetic shifts are not circular, which means the bits shifted off one end of the result are not reintroduced at the other end. In an arithmetic left shift, the bits shifted beyond the range of the result data type are discarded, and the bit positions vacated on the right are set to zero.

Example

The following example uses the <<= operator to shift the bit pattern of an Integer variable left by the specified amount and assign the result to the variable.

Dim Var As Integer = 10   ' Variable containing bit pattern to shift.
Dim Shift As Integer = 3   ' Amount to shift bit pattern.
Var <<= Shift   ' The value of Var is now 80.

See Also

<< Operator | Assignment Operators | Bit Shift Operators | Operator Precedence in Visual Basic | Operators Listed by Functionality