15.21.1 Integer Bitwise Operators &, ^, and |

When both operands of an operator &, ^, or | are of primitive integral type, binary numeric promotion is first performed on the operands (§5.6.2). The type of the bitwise operator expression is the promoted type of the operands.

For &, the result value is the bitwise AND of the operand values.

For ^, the result value is the bitwise exclusive OR of the operand values.

For |, the result value is the bitwise inclusive OR of the operand values.

For example, the result of the expression 0xff00 & 0xf0f0 is 0xf000. The result of 0xff00 ^ 0xf0f0 is 0x0ff0.The result of 0xff00 | 0xf0f0 is 0xfff0.