BITRSHIFT Function in Excel: Shift Bits to the Right

BITRSHIFT Function in Excel: Shift Bits to the Right 1
⏱ 1 min readUpdated 12 October 2026

EngineeringLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2013+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. BITRSHIFT in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions

BITRSHIFT shifts a number’s bits right, the same as integer division by a power of 2. Used to read packed flags and bit fields.

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Syntax

=BITRSHIFT(number, shift_amount)
Argument What it means
number Whole number up to 2^48-1
shift_amount Bits to shift (negative shifts left)

Examples

Example 1

=BITRSHIFT(A2,B2)

Result: 8. See the worked example table below for more cases.

BITRSHIFT in practice

Where you will use it

  • Extracting a field from packed status codes
  • Integer division by powers of 2
  • Protocol and device data

Worked example

NumberShiftFormulaResult
643=BITRSHIFT(A2,B2)8
2554=BITRSHIFT(A3,B3)15
5-2=BITRSHIFT(A4,B4)20

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Expecting decimalsBits shifted out are lost (integer result)
Negative numbers#NUM!

BITLSHIFT · BITAND

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