Bit Shifting Question

[Tom Purl]

I came across the following exercise in a book and am pretty confused by it:

 public class BitTest
{
  static int minusOne = -1;  
  public static void main ( String[] args )
  {
    int n = minusOne >> 31;
    System.out.println( "n = " + n );
  }
} 

The answer ends up being -1. If I understand bit shifting correctly, doesn't the following equation:

 int n = minusOne >> 31 

..equate to:
-1 / (2^31)
...which would be closer to zero?
Thanks in advance for any help!

[Dirk Schreckmann]

The bit representation of -1 is
11111111 11111111 11111111 11111111
>> is the signed right shift operator. That means that it shifts the bits to the right (the number of times according to the second operand) and preserves the sign of the integer during each shift.
So, -1 >> anything is -1. All of the bits are 1's and are moved to the right, the left most bit being replaced by a new 1 during each shift.
For a more thorough explanation of bit shifting, take a look at Cat and Mouse Games with Bits.
Good Luck.