If first operand is an int or uint (32-bit quantity), the shift count is given by the low-order five bits of second operand.

If first operand is a long or ulong (64-bit quantity), the shift count is given by the low-order six bits of second operand.

The high-order bits of first operand are discarded and the low-order empty bits are zero-filled. Shift operations never cause overflows.

User-defined types can overload the << operator (see operator); the type of the first operand must be the user-defined type, and the type of the second operand must be int. When a binary operator is overloaded, the corresponding assignment operator, if any, is also implicitly overloaded.

// cs_operator_left_shift.cs
using System;
class MainClass
{
    static void Main() 
    {
        int i = 1;
        long lg = 1;
        Console.WriteLine("0x{0:x}", i << 1);
        Console.WriteLine("0x{0:x}", i << 33);
        Console.WriteLine("0x{0:x}", lg << 33);
    }
}

Output

0x2
0x2
0x200000000

Note that i<<1 and i<<33 give the same result, because 1 and 33 have the same low-order five bits.

Reference

Concepts

Other Resources