What does the | operator do?

Question

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what's the difference between ( | ) and ( || ) in javascript?

I've seen this in a couple examples here but I never fully understood what it's supposed to do. Can anyone give me a simple example please?

Have a look at MDC: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/operators/bitwise_operators#.7c_(Bitwise_OR) — pimvdb, Aug 13 '11 at 16:37
Or see this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5690512/whats-the-difference-between-and-in-javascript — Grant Thomas, Aug 13 '11 at 16:41

Guffa · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-13T16:48:43.933

2

In Javascript, the | operator is a bitwise operators (in contrast to the || operator which is a logical operator).

It convert each operand to a 32-bit number, and performs a bitwise or between them.

Example of expressions and their results:

1 | 1 === 1
1 | 2 === 3
1.99 | 2.99 === 3

edited Aug 13 '11 at 16:48

answered Aug 13 '11 at 16:43

Guffa

1

May I politely ask why you feel the need to litter our garden when _we're_ busy trying to tidy it? – Grant Thomas Aug 13 '11 at 16:47
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I don't speak for @Guffa, but IMO, giving a good answer is never "litter", irrespective of the existence of duplicate questions. – user113716 Aug 13 '11 at 16:49
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@Mr. Disappointment: What on earth are you talking about? Besides, you failed miserably in asking politely... – Guffa Aug 13 '11 at 16:49
@patrick dw: The 'litter' aspect comes into it when an answer is supplied to a redundant question, it wouldn't necessarily be litter in a more distinguished question to which is still relates. – Grant Thomas Aug 13 '11 at 16:50
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...IMO, giving a good answer is never "litter"... – user113716 Aug 13 '11 at 16:53

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

2

Depends where you use it:

In regular expression it represents "or": /[a-z]|[0-9]/i
It is also bitwise or operator, as described in: What does the "|" (single pipe) do in JavaScript?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

Community

answered Aug 13 '11 at 16:47

Krule

2 Answers2