Bit-flipping operations in T-SQL

Question

I have a bitmasked int field in my database. Usually I manage it through C# code, but now I need to flip a bit in the mask using T-SQL

How do I accomplish the following:

The bit I want to flip: 1 << 8 (256)

The mask value before I flip: 143

The mask value after I flip: 399

This can be done without the bit operators that's missing in T-SQL, right?

Solution 1

Use XOR:

SELECT value ^ 256

So in your case, SELECT 143 ^ 256 will indeed return 399. If you want to pass in the exponent as well:

SELECT value ^ POWER(2, power)

Solution 2

TSql Bitwise operators can be found here and good article on how to use them is here

Comments

[Christian Dalager]

thanks! It solved my problem! Is there also a way to turn on the bit in an elegant way? (i already did it, but it looks ugly...)

[David M]

Are you looking to flip or turn on? Flip - use XOR (^); turn on - use OR (|). If you want more elegance, wrap in a tersely named user-defined function. :)

[Edwin]

The question is about bit shifting, the articles you posted have nothing to do with that

[Charles Bretana]

The question is about bit-FLIPPING, not about bit shifting.

[Reversed Engineer]

The title is wrongly about bit shifting, but the actual question about bit flipping.