Can someone please explain...

[Tech-Blogger]

These symbols according to java language:

When and why would you use these:

1. &
2. &&
3. |
4. ||

Thanks

[Tech-Blogger]

I usuall use the && and || in 'IF' statemets to say either this AND either that or eiter this OR either that.

OR = ||

AND = &&

what are the other two?

[keang]

They are bitwise operators

[laitinen]

&& and || are binary logical operators, or more specifically - logical binary short circuit operators. That means that it will only evalute the first operand if the result of the evaluation is decided by the first operand.

For example in a && expression where the first operand evaluates to false, the second operand will not be evaluated, since the expression anyway will evaluate to false.

Same goes for || if the first operand is true.

| and & are binary logical operators and bitwise operators. In addition to the material in the link keang provided they are also binary operators. If you use | or & in a binary expressions both operands will be evaluated regardless of the result of the first expression.

Consider the value of y after these two code-snippets:

int x = 1;
        int y = 2;
        
        if( x == 1 || (y++ == 2))
        {
           
        }
        // y is now 2

int x = 1;
        int y = 2;
        
        if( x == 1 | (y++ == 2))
        {
           
        }
         // y is now 3.

Cheers,

Laitinen