Mask (computing)

In computer science, a mask or bitmask is data that is used for bitwise operations, particularly in a bit field. Using a mask, multiple bits in a byte, nibble, word, etc. can be set either on or off, or inverted from on to off (or vice versa) in a single bitwise operation. An additional use of masking involves predication in vector processing, where the bitmask is used to select which element operations in the vector are to be executed (mask bit is enabled) and which are not (mask bit is clear). To turn certain bits on, the bitwise OR operation can be used, following the principle that Y OR 1 = 1 and Y OR 0 = Y. Therefore, to make sure a bit is on, OR can be used with a 1. To leave a bit unchanged, OR is used with a 0. Example: Masking on the higher nibble (bits 4, 5, 6, 7) while leaving the lower nibble (bits 0, 1, 2, 3) unchanged. 10010101 10100101 OR 11110000 11110000 = 11110101 11110101 More often in practice, bits are "masked off" (or masked to 0) than "masked on" (or masked to 1). When a bit is ANDed with a 0, the result is always 0, i.e. Y AND 0 = 0. To leave the other bits as they were originally, they can be ANDed with 1 as Y AND 1 = Y Example: Masking off the higher nibble (bits 4, 5, 6, 7) while leaving the lower nibble (bits 0, 1, 2, 3) unchanged. 10010101 10100101 AND 00001111 00001111 = 00000101 00000101 It is possible to use bitmasks to easily check the state of individual bits regardless of the other bits. To do this, turning off all the other bits using the bitwise AND is done as discussed above and the value is compared with 0. If it is equal to 0, then the bit was off, but if the value is any other value, then the bit was on. What makes this convenient is that it is not necessary to figure out what the value actually is, just that it is not 0. Example: Querying the status of the 4th bit 10011101 10010101 AND 00001000 00001000 = 00001000 00000000 So far the article has covered how to turn bits on and turn bits off, but not both at once. Sometimes it does not really matter what the value is, but it must be made the opposite of what it currently is.