BITAND() Function in Oracle

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In Oracle, the BITAND() function returns a bitwise AND of its two arguments.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this: 

BITAND(expr1, expr2)

Where expr1 and expr2 are of type NUMBER.

The arguments must be in the range -(2(n-1)) .. ((2(n-1))-1). If an argument is out of this range, the result is undefined.

Also, if either argument is NULL, the result is NULL.

Example

Here’s an example:

SELECT BITAND(6, 3)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

   BITAND(6,3) 
______________ 
             2

Non-Numeric Arguments

Here’s what happens when we provide a non-numeric argument that can’t be converted to a numeric data type:

SELECT BITAND('six', 3)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT BITAND('six',3)
FROM DUAL
Error report -
ORA-01722: invalid number

Null Values

If any of the arguments are null, the result is null:

SET NULL 'null';

SELECT 
    BITAND(null, 3),
    BITAND(6, null)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

   BITAND(NULL,3)    BITAND(6,NULL) 
_________________ _________________ 
             null              null

By default, SQLcl and SQL*Plus return a blank space whenever null occurs as a result of a SQL SELECT statement.

However, you can use SET NULL to specify a different string to be returned. Here I specified that the string null should be returned.

Incorrect Argument Count

Calling BITAND() without passing any arguments returns an error:

SELECT BITAND()
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT BITAND()
FROM DUAL
Error at Command Line : 1 Column : 8
Error report -
SQL Error: ORA-00909: invalid number of arguments
00909. 00000 -  "invalid number of arguments"
*Cause:    
*Action:

And passing the wrong number of arguments results in an error:

SELECT BITAND(1, 2, 3)
FROM DUAL;

Result:

Error starting at line : 1 in command -
SELECT BITAND(1, 2, 3)
FROM DUAL
Error at Command Line : 1 Column : 8
Error report -
SQL Error: ORA-00909: invalid number of arguments
00909. 00000 -  "invalid number of arguments"
*Cause:    
*Action: