Arduino

Buy | Download | Getting Started | Learning | Reference | Hardware | FAQ

Blog » | Forum » | Playground »

Reference Language | Libraries | Comparison | Changes

# Boolean Operators

These can be used inside the condition of an if statement.

### && (logical and)

True only if both operands are true, e.g.

    if (digitalRead(2) == HIGH  && digitalRead(3) == HIGH) { // read two switches
      // ...
    }

is true only if both inputs are high.

### || (logical or)

True if either operand is true, e.g.

    if (x > 0 || y > 0) {
      // ...
    }

is true if either x or y is greater than 0.

### ! (not)

True if the operand is false, e.g.

    if (!x) {
      // ...
    }

is true if x is false (i.e. if x equals 0).

#### Warning

Make sure you don't mistake the boolean AND operator, && (double ampersand) for the bitwise AND operator & (single ampersand). They are entirely different beasts.

Similarly, do not confuse the boolean || (double pipe) operator with the bitwise OR operator | (single pipe).

The bitwise not ~ (tilde) looks much different than the boolean not ! (exclamation point or "bang" as the programmers say) but you still have to be sure which one you want where.

#### Examples

    if (a >= 10 && a <= 20){}   // true if a is between 10 and 20

#### See also

- & (bitwise AND)
- | (bitwise OR)
- ~ (bitwise NOT
- if

Reference Home

Corrections, suggestions, and new documentation should be posted to the Forum.

The text of the Arduino reference is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Code samples in the reference are released into the public domain.

Share|
Edit Page | Page History | Printable View | All Recent Site Changes