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What is the difference between a single & and &&? I personaly always use &, but I often see people using &&. Why?
& = bitwise-AND
&& = conditional-AND
You use the latter for doing conditional checks, and the former for operations on bits. This also determines how the compiler treats it, i.e if it finds a bitwise-AND it will literally AND the bits of the operands (assuming it lets you do the operation), while the conditional-AND will work with true/false, non-zero/zero.
[edited by - Zipster on July 7, 2003 12:16:42 AM]
&& = conditional-AND
You use the latter for doing conditional checks, and the former for operations on bits. This also determines how the compiler treats it, i.e if it finds a bitwise-AND it will literally AND the bits of the operands (assuming it lets you do the operation), while the conditional-AND will work with true/false, non-zero/zero.
[edited by - Zipster on July 7, 2003 12:16:42 AM]
&& is used to check if two or more expressions are true or not
example
this checks to see if x is 0 AND if x is less than 5
the symbol & is a bitwise operation which compares the bits between two numbers. if 5 (binary 101) was & with 7 (binary 111), the result would be 5 (binary 101) because the second binary number of both 5 and 7 are different, which makes the result of the second bit false. The first and the third bits of 5 and 7 are the same, so the final results of the first and third bits are true.
I hope this helps some
-Boblin
example
if(x = 0 && x < 5){ // do some code stuff}this checks to see if x is 0 AND if x is less than 5
the symbol & is a bitwise operation which compares the bits between two numbers. if 5 (binary 101) was & with 7 (binary 111), the result would be 5 (binary 101) because the second binary number of both 5 and 7 are different, which makes the result of the second bit false. The first and the third bits of 5 and 7 are the same, so the final results of the first and third bits are true.
I hope this helps some
-Boblin
Since it hasn''t been mentioned, if you are using & or && in an if statement, and you aren''t explicitly needing bitwise testing, then always use &&. Using & when you are looking for a "this and this" condition is bad form.
Often they give the same results but they can absolutely not be used interchangeably.
[edited by - eighty on July 8, 2003 4:25:09 AM]
1 & 2; // 0
1 && 2; // 1
int x = 0;
0 & (x = 1); // here x will be 1
0 && (x = 1); // here x will remain 0
[edited by - eighty on July 8, 2003 4:25:09 AM]
As eighty implicitely said, && is a short-circuit operation. If its left side is false, it won''t even evaluate the right side. So using && on conditionals is often faster. (well, sometimes branching can make it slower than &. But if right side needs calculation, using && will be faster. && is considered better style anyway)
quote:Original post by eighty
Often they give the same results but they can absolutely not be used interchangeably.
<code>
1 & 2; // 0
1 && 2; // 1
int x = 0;
0 & (x = 1); // here x will be 1
0 && (x = 1); // here x will remain 0
</code>
<SPAN CLASS=editedby>[edited by - eighty on July 8, 2003 4:25:09 AM]</SPAN>
0 & (x = 1);
0 && (x = 1);
Both will be null
0 & 1 = 0
0 and 1 will be 0
0 && 1 = 0
First operand is false second is true, the same? no = false = 0
But true isn’t always 1 it can be all but 0, or is it?
quote:Original post by eighty
Often they give the same results but they can absolutely not be used interchangeably.
1 & 2; // 0
1 && 2; // 1
int x = 0;
0 & (x = 1); // here x will be 1
0 && (x = 1); // here x will remain 0
[edited by - eighty on July 8, 2003 4:25:09 AM]
0 & (x = 1);
0 && (x = 1);
Both will be null
0 & 1 = 0
0 and 1 will be 0
0 && 1 = 0
First operand is false second is true, the same? no = false = 0
But true isn’t always 1 it can be all but 0, or is it?
The bool true evaluates to 1 when converted to int.
The bool false evaluates to 0 when converted to int.
but
Any non-zero int evaluates to true when converted to bool.
The int zero evaluates to false when converted to bool.
As it happens, && takes two bools and returns a bool.
Draw your conclusions.
Note: in operations involving bool and int, the bool is promoted to int, not the other way round. Therefore, true == 2 is false, but true == bool(2) is true.
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[edited by - Fruny on July 8, 2003 7:45:48 AM]
The bool false evaluates to 0 when converted to int.
but
Any non-zero int evaluates to true when converted to bool.
The int zero evaluates to false when converted to bool.
As it happens, && takes two bools and returns a bool.
Draw your conclusions.
Note: in operations involving bool and int, the bool is promoted to int, not the other way round. Therefore, true == 2 is false, but true == bool(2) is true.
[ Start Here ! | How To Ask Smart Questions | Recommended C++ Books | C++ FAQ Lite | Function Ptrs | CppTips Archive ]
[ Header Files | File Format Docs | LNK2001 | C++ STL Doc | STLPort | Free C++ IDE | Boost C++ Lib | MSVC6 Lib Fixes ]
[edited by - Fruny on July 8, 2003 7:45:48 AM]
BTW, youse use == for comparisons, not =. = always returns true which would mess up code in posts by Boblin, eighty, AP, and Leadorn. Only Fruny managed to do it right
.
.
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