What does >>= mean?

Question

I don't understand what >>= means (I thought greater than or equal to was >=) also what is: (times & 1) from below.

function repeat (string, times) {
var result = ''
while (times > 0) {
if (times & 1) result += string
times >>= 1
string += string
}
 return result
}

It looks like it's a bitwise operator, but then I don't get why the `=` is there... It's confusing even to me. — Zizouz212, May 11 '15 at 00:07
See here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators a very useful resource — Dinesh, May 11 '15 at 00:09
`times >>=1` is a short cut, same as `times = times >> 1`. Similar to the syntax of `a += b` (`a = a + b`). — huocp, May 11 '15 at 00:18
That's a lot of effort when `function repeat(string,times) {return new Array(times+1).join(string);}` would suffice... — Niet the Dark Absol, May 11 '15 at 01:30

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '15 at 00:11

>>= is a right-shift-and-assign see. >>= 1 is simply integer division by 2.

& is a Bitwise AND see. time & 1 is simply checking if it is odd.

1 Answers1