The <<
operator will perform a bitwise "left shift," where the left operand's value is moved left by the number of bits given by the right operand.
# 2 = 0b10
2 << 2
# Out: 8
# 8 = 0b1000
bin(2 << 2)
# Out: 0b1000
Performing a left bit shift of 1
is equivalent to multiplication by 2
:
7 << 1
# Out: 14
Performing a left bit shift of n
is equivalent to multiplication by 2**n
:
3 << 4
# Out: 48