---
title: bits shl
categories: |
  bits
version: 0.104.0
bits: |
  Bitwise shift left for ints or binary values.
usage: |
  Bitwise shift left for ints or binary values.
editLink: false
contributors: false
---
<!-- This file is automatically generated. Please edit the command in https://github.com/nushell/nushell instead. -->

# `bits shl` for [bits](/commands/categories/bits.md)

<div class='command-title'>Bitwise shift left for ints or binary values.</div>

## Signature

```> bits shl {flags} (bits)```

## Flags

 -  `--signed, -s`: always treat input number as a signed number
 -  `--number-bytes, -n {int}`: the word size in number of bytes, it can be 1, 2, 4, 8, auto, default value `8`

## Parameters

 -  `bits`: Number of bits to shift left.


## Input/output types:

| input        | output       |
| ------------ | ------------ |
| binary       | binary       |
| int          | int          |
| list\<binary\> | list\<binary\> |
| list\<int\>    | list\<int\>    |
## Examples

Shift left a number by 7 bits
```nu
> 2 | bits shl 7
0
```

Shift left a number with 2 byte by 7 bits
```nu
> 2 | bits shl 7 --number-bytes 2
256
```

Shift left a signed number by 1 bit
```nu
> 0x7F | bits shl 1 --signed
-2
```

Shift left a list of numbers
```nu
> [5 3 2] | bits shl 2
╭───┬────╮
│ 0 │ 20 │
│ 1 │ 12 │
│ 2 │  8 │
╰───┴────╯

```

Shift left a binary value
```nu
> 0x[4f f4] | bits shl 4
Length: 2 (0x2) bytes | printable whitespace ascii_other non_ascii
00000000:   ff 40                                                ×@

```