BigInteger clearBit() Method in Java (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025

Prerequisite: BigInteger Basics
The clearBit() method returns a BigInteger which is used to clear a particular bit position in a BigInteger. The bit at index n of binary representation of BigInteger will be cleared means converted to zero. Mathematically we can say that it is used to calculate this & ~(1<<n).
Syntax:

public BigInteger clearBit(int n)

Parameter: The method takes one parameter n which refers to the index of the bit needed to be cleared.
Return Value: The method returns the BigInteger after clearing the bit position n.
Throws: The method might throw an ArithmeticException when n is negative.
Examples:

Input: value = 2300, index = 3 Output: 2292 Explanation: Binary Representation of 2300 = 100011111100 bit at index 3 is 1 so clear the bit at index 3 Now Binary Representation becomes 100011110100 and Decimal equivalent of 100011110100 is 2292

Input: value = 5482549, index = 0 Output: 5482548

Below program illustrate the clearBit(index) method of BigInteger().

Java `

/* *Program Demonstrate clearBit() method of BigInteger / import java.math.;

public class GFG {

public static void main(String[] args)
{

    // Creating  BigInteger object
    BigInteger biginteger = new BigInteger("5482549");

    // Creating an int i for index
    int i = 0;

    // Call clearBit() method on bigInteger at index i
    // store the return BigInteger
    BigInteger changedvalue = biginteger.clearBit(i);

    String result = "After applying clearbit at index " + 
    i + " of " + biginteger+" New Value is " + changedvalue;

    // Print result
    System.out.println(result);
}

}

`

Output:

After applying clearbit at index 0 of 5482549 New Value is 5482548

Reference:https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/math/BigInteger.html#clearBit(int)