ruby pipe operator

Question

I'm new to ruby, and I saw this code snippet

1|2

and it returns 3

What does the | operator actually do? I couldn't seem to find any documentation on it. Also, in this context is it referred to as the "pipe" operator? or is it called something else?

score 32 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 22 '14 at 11:33

This is a bitwise operator and they work directly with the binary representation of the value.

| mean OR. Let me show you how it works.

1|2 = 3 what happens under the hoods is:

1 = 0001
2 = 0010
--------
3 = 0011 <- result

another example:

10|2 = 10 now in binary:

10 = 1010
2  = 0010
--------
10 = 1010 <- result

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '12 at 23:04

14

In Ruby, "operators" are actually method calls. They are defined by each class.

1 and 2 are Fixnum and so in 1|2 pipe does "bitwise or".

Ruby doc

Bitwise info

answered Jun 22 '12 at 23:04

nickgroenke

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oops, yeah, I didn't even think about bitwise or. when I saw 1|2 and the result was 3, my thought immediately went to addition so that's what confused me about it. – Jeff Storey Jun 24 '12 at 23:21

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 22 '12 at 23:03

2

It is the bitwise or operator.

http://www.java2s.com/Code/Ruby/Language-Basics/dobitwiseoperationsinRuby.htm

answered Jun 22 '12 at 23:03

Speed

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Ah yes, same as many other languages...don't know why I thought it did something else, thanks. – Jeff Storey Jun 22 '12 at 23:04

ruby pipe operator

3 Answers3