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coperatorsampersand

What does using ampersand (&) with minus operator achieve?

I'm preparing for a programming contest and I have stumbled upon the question below.

void main(){
    int number, result;
    scanf("%d",&number);
    result=number-(number&-number); //this is what i'm struggling to understand
    printf("%d",result);  
}

Note the use of "&-" in the commented line. I couldn't figure out its function. I tried googling and reverse engineering but I couldn't find anything.

Also, the question itself is not about the exact output because the variable "number" is dynamic. I just need to learn what the "&-" part do. Thanks!

Solution

  • The ampersand is a binary AND operator. The minus is just a regular minus. Thanks to @tkausl