Several types defined in Clauses [language.support] through [thread] and Annex [depr] are bitmask types. Each bitmask type can be implemented as an enumerated type that overloads certain operators, as an integer type, or as a bitset.
The bitmask type bitmask can be written:
// For exposition only. // int_type is an integral type capable of representing all values of the bitmask type. enum bitmask : int_type { \textit{V}0 = 1 << 0, \textit{V}1 = 1 << 1, \textit{V}2 = 1 << 2, \textit{V}3 = 1 << 3, ..... }; inline constexpr \textit{bitmask C}0(\textit{V}0); inline constexpr \textit{bitmask C}1(\textit{V}1); inline constexpr \textit{bitmask C}2(\textit{V}2); inline constexpr \textit{bitmask C}3(\textit{V}3); ..... constexpr bitmask operator&(bitmask X, bitmask Y) { return static_cast<bitmask>( static_cast<int_type>(X) & static_cast<int_type>(Y)); } constexpr bitmask operator|(bitmask X, bitmask Y) { return static_cast<bitmask>( static_cast<int_type>(X) | static_cast<int_type>(Y)); } constexpr bitmask operator^(bitmask X, bitmask Y){ return static_cast<bitmask>( static_cast<int_type>(X) ^ static_cast<int_type>(Y)); } constexpr bitmask operator~(bitmask X){ return static_cast<bitmask>(~static_cast<int_type>(X)); } bitmask& operator&=(bitmask& X, bitmask Y){ X = X & Y; return X; } bitmask& operator|=(bitmask& X, bitmask Y) { X = X | Y; return X; } bitmask& operator^=(bitmask& X, bitmask Y) { X = X ^ Y; return X; }
Here, the names \textit{C}0, \textit{C}1, etc. represent bitmask elements for this particular bitmask type. All such elements have distinct, nonzero values such that, for any pair \textit{C}i and \textit{C}j where i≠j, Ci & Ci is nonzero and Ci & Cj is zero. Additionally, the value 0 is used to represent an empty bitmask, in which no bitmask elements are set.