BITLSHIFT

Shifts a number to the left by a specified amount of bits and returns the result found after the shift.

Syntax:

BITLSHIFT(number, shift_amount)

number should be 0 or higher.

shift_amount is an integer.

Example:

If number contains 1 and shift_amount contains 2:

BITLSHIFT(1, 2)

returns 4

numberOne:

numberTwo:

Result:

4

Application:

Fast Scoring in a Game

Imagine you are developing a simple arcade game where a player's score can increase based on different actions. Let's say a player gets points for collecting items. To make the scoring dynamic and fast, you decide to use a bit shift operation.

Normal Points: A player gets 1 point for a common item.
Bonus Multiplier: A "power-up" item doubles the points for subsequent items. You can represent this with a multiplier.

Instead of doing a slow multiplication (score * 2), you can use a bitwise left shift to quickly double the score.

Here is a table demonstrating how this works:

	Action	Current Score (Decimal)	Current Score (Binary)	Power-Up Multiplier	BITLSHIFT Operation	New Score (Decimal)	New Score (Binary)
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
1	Start	0	0000	0	-	0	0000
2	Collect Item 1	1	0001	0	-	1	0001
3	Collect Item 2	2	0010	0	-	2	0010
4	Collect Power-Up	2	0010	1	-	2	0010
5	Collect Item 3 (with Power-Up)	2	0010	1	BITLSHIFT(2, 1)	4	0100
6	Collect Item 4 (with Power-Up)	4	0100	1	BITLSHIFT(4, 1)	8	1000
7	Collect Item 5 (Power-Up fades)	8	1000	0	-	9	1001

Explanation:

Initially, the score is 0.
After collecting the first two items, the score is 2. The binary representation is 0010.
The player then collects a "Power-Up" item. The multiplier is now 1.
When the player collects "Item 3," the BITLSHIFT function is applied to the current score (2) by a shift of 1.
- Decimal: BITLSHIFT(2, 1)
- Binary: The bits of 0010 are shifted one position to the left, resulting in 0100.
- 0100 in binary is equal to 4 in decimal. The score is instantly doubled.
When "Item 4" is collected, the function is applied to the new score (4) with a shift of 1.
- Decimal: BITLSHIFT(4, 1)
- Binary: The bits of 0100 are shifted one position to the left, resulting in 1000.
- 1000 in binary is equal to 8 in decimal. The score is doubled again.

This example illustrates how BITLSHIFT can be a very efficient way to multiply by powers of two, which is a common requirement in many programming tasks where performance is critical.