* An [[_UNSIGNED]] _BIT can hold 0 or 1 instead of 0 and -1, if you set the numberofbits you can hold larger values depending on the number of bits you have set (_BIT * 8 can hold the same values as [[_BYTE]] for example) and the information below is compromised if setting any number of bits other than 1.
* If you set the variable to any other number then the least significant bit of that number will be set as the variables number, if the bit is 1 (on) then the variable will be -1 and if the bit is 0 (off) then the variable will be 0.
*The least significant bit is the last bit on a string of bits (11111) since that bit will only add 1 to the value if set. The most significant bit is the first bit on a string of bits and changes the value more dramatically (significantly) if set on or off.
*The _BIT datatype can be succesfully used as a [[Boolean]] (TRUE or FALSE) and it requires minimal amount of memory (the lowest amount possible actually, one byte can hold 8 bits, if you want to use bits in order to decrease memory usage, use them as arrays as a _BIT variable by itself allocates 4 bytes - DIM bitarray(800) AS _BIT uses 100 bytes).
* '''When a variable has not been assigned or has no type suffix, the value defaults to [[SINGLE]].'''
* '''[[Keywords_currently_not_supported_by_QB64|_BIT is not supported in User Defined TYPES.]]''' Use a [[_BYTE]] and assign up to 8 bit values as shown below.
*'''Suffix Symbols''' The [[_BIT]] type suffix used is below the grave accent (`), usually located under the tilde (~) key, not an apostrophe! Foreign keyboards may not have the ` key. Try [[CHR$]](96).
:You can define a bit on-the-fly by adding a ` after the variable, like this; variable` = -1
:If you want a unsigned bit you can define it on-the-fly by adding ~` instead, like this; variable~` = 1
:You can set the number of bits on the fly by just adding that number - this defines it as being two bits; variable`2 = -1
<center>'''[[_BIT|BITS]]'''</center>
* The '''MSB''' is the most significant(largest) bit value and '''LSB''' is the least significant bit of a binary or register memory address value. The order in which the bits are read determines the binary or decimal byte value. There are two common ways to read a byte:
:* '''"Big-endian"''': MSB is the first bit encountered, decreasing to the LSB as the last bit by position, memory address or time.
:* '''"Little-endian"''': LSB is the first bit encountered, increasing to the MSB as the last bit by position, memory address or time.
'''Big-Endian Bit On Value:''' 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 240
'''Little-Endian Bit On Value:''' 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 15
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::The big-endian method compares exponents of 2 <sup>7</sup> down to 2 <sup>0</sup> while the little-endian method does the opposite.
* [[INTEGER]] values consist of 2 bytes called the '''HI''' and '''LO''' bytes. Anytime that the number of binary digits is a multiple of 16 (2bytes, 4 bytes, etc.) and the HI byte's MSB is on(1), the value returned will be negative. Even with [[SINGLE]] or [[DOUBLE]] values!