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Elixir Operators

Welcome to a tutorial on Elixir. Here you will learn about the operator and the different categories.

In a programming language, an operator is a symbol that informs the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical manipulations. We have so many operators in Elixir.

They are divided into the categories below.

Arithmetic operators
Comparison operators
Boolean operators
Misc operators

Arithmetic Operators

The Table below shows all the arithmetic operators supported by the Elixir language. Here we assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20.

Operator	Description	Example
+	It adds 2 numbers.	A + B = 30
-	To subtracts the second number from the first.	A-B = -10
*	It multiplies two numbers.	A*B = 200
/	It divides the first number from the second, and it casts the numbers in floats and gives a float result	A/B = 0.5.
div	This function is simply used to get the quotient on division.	div(10,20) = 0
rem	This function is simply used to get the remainder of a division.	rem(A, B) = 10

Comparison Operators

In Elixir, the comparison operators are frequently those provided in most other languages.

The table below sums up comparison operators in Elixir. Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20;

Operator	Description	Example
==	This checks if the value on the left is equal to the value on the right(Type casts values if they are not the same type).	A == B gives false
!=	This checks if the value on the left is not equal to the value on the right.	A != B gives true
===	This checks if the type of value on the left equals the type of value on the right, if yes then check the same for value.	A === B gives false
!==	This same as above but checks for inequality instead of equality.	A !== B gives true
>	It checks if the value of the left operand is greater than the value of the right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	A > B gives false
<	It checks if the value of the left operand is less than the value of the right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	A < B gives true
>=	It checks if the value of the left operand is greater than or equal to the value of the right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	A >= B gives false
<=	It checks if the value of the left operand is less than or equal to the value of the right operand; if yes, then the condition becomes true.	A <= B gives true

Logical operators

Elixir provides six logical operators which are; and, or, not, &&, || and !. The first three, and or not are referred to as strict Boolean operators, this means that they expect their first argument to be a Boolean. A non-Boolean argument will raise an error, while the next three, &&, || and ! are non-strict, that is they do not require us to have the first value strictly as a boolean. Also, they work in the same way as their strict counterparts.

In the table below, let’s assume variable A holds true and variable B holds 20;

Operator	Description	Example
and	This checks if both values provided are truthy, if yes then returns the value of the second variable. (Logical and).	A and B give 20
or	It checks if either value provided is truthy. Returns whichever value is truthy. Else returns false. (Logical or).	A or B gives true
not	This is a Unary operator which inverts the value of given input.	not A gives false
&&	It is Non-strict and. Also, it works the same as and but does not expect the first argument to be a Boolean.	B && A gives 20
\|\|	It is Non-strict or. Also, works the same as or but does not expect the first argument to be a Boolean.	B \|\| A gives true
!	It is non-strict not. Works the same as not but does not expect the argument to be a Boolean.	!A will give false

Note : and, or, && and || || are short circuit operators, meaning that if the first argument of and is false, then it will not further check for the second one. But, if the first argument of or is true, then it will not check for the second one. Check out the example;

false and raise("An error")  
#This won't raise an error as raise function wont get executed because of short
#circuiting nature of and operator

Bitwise Operators

A Bitwise operator works on bits and performs a bit-by-bit operation. In Elixir, bitwise modules are provided as part of the package Bitwise, now to use these, you need to use the bitwise module. Enter the command below in your shell to use it;

use Bitwise

Let’s assume A to be 5 and B to be 6 for the example below.

Operator	Description	Example
&&&	It means that the Bitwise and operator copies a bit to result if it exists in both operands.	A &&& B gives 4
\|\|\|	It means that the Bitwise or operator copies a bit to result if it exists in either operand.	A \|\|\| B gives 7
>>>	It means that the Bitwise right shift operator shifts the first operand bits to the right by the number specified in the second operand.	A >>> B gives 0
<<<	It means that the Bitwise left shift operator shifts the first operand bits to the left by the number specified in the second operand.	A <<< B gives 320
^^^	It means that the Bitwise XOR operator copies a bit to result only if it is different on both operands.	A ^^^ B gives 3
~~~	Here the Unary bitwise not inverts the bits on the given number.	~~~A give -6

Misc Operators

Elixir provides other operators such as Concatenation Operator, Match Operator, Pin Operator, Pipe Operator, String Match Operator, Code Point Operator, Capture Operator, and Ternary Operator, which makes it a powerful language.

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