how can i do bitwise (binary) operations (AND, OR, XOR)

I always have to convert a cell to binary then perform the operations manually (bit-by-bit)... like this:

B1=MID($A1, COLUMN()−1, 1)

this is shorthand for... select cell B1, then type (or copy and paste from here) the formula:

=MID($A1, COLUMN()−1, 1)

select B1, copy

select cell B2, paste

B3=IF(AND(B1="1", B2="1")=TRUE, 1, 0)

select cell B1 thru B3, copy

select cell B1 thru I3, paste

this performs the and operation

For AND, you can also use the SUBSTITUTE function.

For example, with 10101000 in A1 and 11111000 in A2, use:

=1×SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,1,0),2,1)

Result:

10101000

Or even shorter, try this:

=SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,1,0)÷2

SG

for OR, with 10101000 in A1 and 11111000 in A2, try:

=1×SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,2,1)

Result: 11111000

and for XOR, try:

=1×SUBSTITUTE(A1+A2,2,0)

Result: 1010000 (missing leading 0)

You can display missing leading zeros by setting the cell's Data Format to 'Numeral System' with Base set to 10 and Places to 8, or turn the result into a string with something like this (assuming the result is in A3):

=RIGHT("0000000"&A3,8)

SG