<<= Operator (Visual Basic)
Performs an arithmetic left shift on the value of a variable or property and assigns the result back to the variable or property.
variableorproperty <<= amount
Parts
variableorproperty
Required. Variable or property of an integral type (SByte, Byte, Short, UShort, Integer, UInteger, Long, or ULong).amount
Required. Numeric expression of a data type that widens to Integer.
Remarks
The element on the left side of the <<= operator can be a simple scalar variable, a property, or an element of an array. The variable or property cannot be ReadOnly (Visual Basic).
The <<= operator first performs an arithmetic left shift on the value of the variable or property. The operator then assigns the result of that operation back to that variable or property.
Arithmetic shifts are not circular, which means the bits shifted off one end of the result are not reintroduced at the other end. In an arithmetic left shift, the bits shifted beyond the range of the result data type are discarded, and the bit positions vacated on the right are set to zero.
Overloading
The << Operator (Visual Basic) can be overloaded, which means that a class or structure can redefine its behavior when an operand has the type of that class or structure. Overloading the << operator affects the behavior of the <<= operator. If your code uses <<= on a class or structure that overloads <<, be sure you understand its redefined behavior. For more information, see Operator Procedures (Visual Basic).
Example
The following example uses the <<= operator to shift the bit pattern of an Integer variable left by the specified amount and assign the result to the variable.
Dim var As Integer = 10
Dim shift As Integer = 3
var <<= shift
' The value of var is now 80.
See Also
Reference
Assignment Operators (Visual Basic)
Bit Shift Operators (Visual Basic)
Operator Precedence in Visual Basic
Operators Listed by Functionality (Visual Basic)