它在sql关系模型中也很方便，假设你有以下表:BlogEntry, BlogCategory

传统上，你可以使用BlogEntryCategory表在它们之间创建一个n-n关系 或者当没有那么多的BlogCategory记录时，你可以在BlogEntry中使用一个值来链接到多个BlogCategory记录，就像你会用标记的枚举做的那样， 在大多数RDBMS中，也有一个非常快速的操作符来选择'标记'列…

我在为CMS实现安全模型时使用了按位操作。如果用户属于适当的组，就可以访问它的页面。一个用户可以在多个组中，因此我们需要检查用户组和页面组之间是否有交集。因此，我们为每个组分配了一个唯一的2次方标识符，例如:

Group A = 1 --> 00000001
Group B = 2 --> 00000010
Group C = 3 --> 00000100

我们将这些值一起OR，并将值(作为单个int)存储在页面中。例如，如果一个页面可以被a组和B组访问，我们存储值3(二进制是00000011)作为页面访问控制。同样，我们将or组标识符的值存储给用户，以表示用户所在的组。

因此，要检查给定用户是否可以访问给定页面，只需将这些值与运算在一起，并检查该值是否非零。这是非常快的，因为这个检查是在一条指令中实现的，没有循环，没有数据库往返。

我将它们用于多选择选项，这样我只存储一个值，而不是10个或更多

在当今现代语言的抽象世界里，没有太多。File IO是一个容易想到的方法，尽管它是在已经实现的东西上执行按位操作，而不是实现使用按位操作的东西。尽管如此，作为一个简单的例子，这段代码演示了在c#中删除文件上的只读属性(这样它就可以与指定FileMode.Create的新FileStream一起使用):

//Hidden files posses some extra attibutes that make the FileStream throw an exception
//even with FileMode.Create (if exists -> overwrite) so delete it and don't worry about it!
if(File.Exists(targetName))
{
    FileAttributes attributes = File.GetAttributes(targetName);

    if ((attributes & FileAttributes.ReadOnly) == FileAttributes.ReadOnly)
        File.SetAttributes(targetName, attributes & (~FileAttributes.ReadOnly));

    File.Delete(targetName);
}

As far as custom implementations, here's a recent example: I created a "message center" for sending secure messages from one installation of our distributed application to another. Basically, it's analogous to email, complete with Inbox, Outbox, Sent, etc, but it also has guaranteed delivery with read receipts, so there are additional subfolders beyond "inbox" and "sent." What this amounted to was a requirement for me to define generically what's "in the inbox" or what's "in the sent folder". Of the sent folder, I need to know what's read and what's unread. Of what's unread, I need to know what's received and what's not received. I use this information to build a dynamic where clause which filters a local datasource and displays the appropriate information.

下面是枚举是如何组合在一起的:

    public enum MemoView :int
    {
        InboundMemos = 1,                   //     0000 0001
        InboundMemosForMyOrders = 3,        //     0000 0011
        SentMemosAll = 16,                  //     0001 0000
        SentMemosNotReceived = 48,          //     0011
        SentMemosReceivedNotRead = 80,      //     0101
        SentMemosRead = 144,                //     1001
        Outbox = 272,                       //0001 0001 0000
        OutBoxErrors = 784                  //0011 0001 0000
    }

你明白这是怎么回事了吗?通过与“收件箱”枚举值InboundMemos加上(&)，我知道InboundMemosForMyOrders在收件箱中。

下面是该方法的简化版本，它构建并返回为当前选择的文件夹定义视图的过滤器:

    private string GetFilterForView(MemoView view, DefaultableBoolean readOnly)
    {
        string filter = string.Empty;
        if((view & MemoView.InboundMemos) == MemoView.InboundMemos)
        {
            filter = "<inbox filter conditions>";

            if((view & MemoView.InboundMemosForMyOrders) == MemoView.InboundMemosForMyOrders)
            {
                filter += "<my memo filter conditions>";
            }
        }
        else if((view & MemoView.SentMemosAll) == MemoView.SentMemosAll)
        {
            //all sent items have originating system = to local
            filter = "<memos leaving current system>";

            if((view & MemoView.Outbox) == MemoView.Outbox)
            {
                ...
            }
            else
            {
                //sent sub folders
                filter += "<all sent items>";

                if((view & MemoView.SentMemosNotReceived) == MemoView.SentMemosNotReceived)
                {
                    if((view & MemoView.SentMemosReceivedNotRead) == MemoView.SentMemosReceivedNotRead)
                    {
                        filter += "<not received and not read conditions>";
                    }
                    else
                        filter += "<received and not read conditions>";
                }
            }
        }

        return filter;
    }

非常简单，但在抽象级别上是一个整洁的实现，通常不需要按位操作。

我曾在一些游戏开发书籍中看到它是一种更有效的乘除方法。

2 << 3 == 2 * 8 
32 >> 4 == 32 / 16

低级编程就是一个很好的例子。例如，你可能需要写一个特定的位到内存映射寄存器，以使某些硬件做你想要它做的事情:

volatile uint32_t *register = (volatile uint32_t *)0x87000000;
uint32_t          value;
uint32_t          set_bit   = 0x00010000;
uint32_t          clear_bit = 0x00001000;

value = *register;            // get current value from the register
value = value & ~clear_bit;   // clear a bit
value = value | set_bit;      // set a bit
*register = value;            // write it back to the register

同样，htonl()和htons()是使用&和|操作符实现的(在字节顺序不匹配网络顺序的机器上):

#define htons(a) ((((a) & 0xff00) >> 8) | \
                  (((a) & 0x00ff) << 8))

#define htonl(a) ((((a) & 0xff000000) >> 24) | \
                  (((a) & 0x00ff0000) >>  8) | \
                  (((a) & 0x0000ff00) <<  8) | \
                  (((a) & 0x000000ff) << 24))