TypeScript Unsigned Right Shift

operand1 >>> operand2

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Technical Mechanics

1. Type Coercion: TypeScript (inheriting from JavaScript’s underlying ECMAScript specification) internally converts operand1 into a 32-bit unsigned integer (ToUint32).
2. Shift Masking: operand2 is converted to an unsigned 32-bit integer and masked using a bitwise AND (operand2 & 0x1F). This restricts the actual shift amount to a value between 0 and 31 bits.
3. Zero-filling: As bits are shifted to the right, the leftmost bits are populated with 0. This fundamentally alters negative numbers, as their leading 1 (the sign bit in two’s complement representation) is replaced by 0.
4. Return Type: The result is always returned as a 32-bit unsigned integer, typed as number in TypeScript.
5. BigInt Incompatibility: >>> is the only bitwise operator in TypeScript/JavaScript that does not support BigInt. Because BigInt represents arbitrary-precision integers without a fixed bit-width, an unsigned right shift is mathematically invalid. Attempting to use >>> with bigint operands throws a compilation error.

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Behavior Visualization

const a: number = 9; 
// 32-bit Binary: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00001001

const result1 = a >>> 2; 
// Shifted Right: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000010
// result1 === 2

const b: number = -9; 
// 32-bit Binary: 11111111 11111111 11111111 11110111

const result2 = b >>> 2; 
// Shifted Right: 00111111 11111111 11111111 11111101
// result2 === 1073741821

const c: number = 3.99; 
// Truncated to 3
// 32-bit Binary: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000011

const result3 = c >>> 1; 
// Shifted Right: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001
// result3 === 1

const d: number = -1;
// 32-bit Binary: 11111111 11111111 11111111 11111111

const result4 = d >>> 0;
// Shifted Right: 11111111 11111111 11111111 11111111 (Interpreted as unsigned)
// result4 === 4294967295

const e: bigint = 9n;

const result5 = e >>> 2n;
// TypeScript Error: Operator '>>>' cannot be applied to types 'bigint' and 'bigint'.