Question

In this blog post the author has suggested the following as the bug fix:

 int mid = (low + high) >>> 1;

Does anyone know what is this >>> operator? Certainly its not there on the following operator reference list:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x04xhy0h%28v=vs.71%29.aspx
• http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/operators/

What is it and how does that solve the overflow problem?

Answer 1

>>> is not a part of C++. The blog contains code in Java.

Check out Java online tutorial here on Bitwise shift operators. It says

The unsigned right shift operator “>>>” shifts a zero into the leftmost position, while the leftmost position after “>>” depends on sign extension.