Question

I have this piece of code can you explain me the output

unsigned int x=3;
~x;
printf("%d",x);

output is 10
I am not able to make it how.

I have compiled the code on turbo c

Answer 1

The code as you’ve posted it won’t compile. It will compile if you change ~x to x = ~x;, but then it won’t give the output “10”.

The ~ operator creates a bitwise inverse of the number given. In binary, the number 3 as an eight-bit integer is represented by the bits 00000011. The ~ operator will replace every one of those bits with its opposite, giving 11111100, which is 252 unsigned, or -4 signed.

You declared x as an unsigned int, which means a 32-bit unsigned value on most platforms. So your original value is 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000011, and the inverse is 11111111 11111111 11111111 11111100, or 4294967292.