Elixir - Operators

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An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical manipulations. There are a LOT of operators provided by elixir. They are divided in the following categories −

  • Arithmetic operators
  • Comparison operators
  • Boolean operators
  • Misc operators

Arithmetic Operators

The following table shows all the arithmetic operators supported by Elixir language. Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then −

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Operator Description Example
+ Adds 2 numbers. A + B will give 30
- Subtracts second number from first. A-B will give -10
* Multiplies two numbers. A*B will give 200
/ Divides first number from second. This casts the numbers in floats and gives a float result A/B will give 0.5.
div This function is used to get the quotient on division. div(10,20) will give 0
rem This function is used to get the remainder on division. rem(A, B) will give 10

Comparison Operators

The comparison operators in Elixir are mostly common to those provided in most other languages. The following table sums up comparison operators in Elixir. Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then −

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

Logical operators

Elixir provides 6 logical operators: and, or, not, &&, || and !. The first three, and or not are strict Boolean operators, meaning that they expect their first argument to be a Boolean. Non Boolean argument will raise an error. While the next three, &&, || and ! are non strict, do not require us to have the first value strictly as a boolean. They work in the same way as their strict counterparts. Assume variable A holds true and variable B holds 20, then −

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Operator Description Example
and Checks if both values provided are truthy, if yes then returns the value of second variable. (Logical and). A and B will give 20
or Checks if either value provided is truthy. Returns whichever value is truthy. Else returns false. (Logical or). A or B will give true
not Unary operator which inverts the value of given input. not A will give false
&& Non-strict and. Works same as and but does not expect first argument to be a Boolean. B && A will give 20
|| Non-strict or. Works same as or but does not expect first argument to be a Boolean. B || A will give true
! Non-strict not. Works 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. This means that if the first argument of and is false, then it will not further check for the second one. And if the first argument of or is true, then it will not check for the second one. For 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

Bitwise operators work on bits and perform bit by bit operation. Elixir provides bitwise modules as part of the package Bitwise, so in order to use these, you need to use the bitwise module. To use it, enter the following command in your shell −

use Bitwise

Assume A to be 5 and B to be 6 for the following examples −

Show Examples

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

Misc Operators

Other than the above operators, Elixir also provides a range of other operators like Concatenation Operator, Match Operator, Pin Operator, Pipe Operator, String Match Operator, Code Point Operator, Capture Operator, Ternary Operator that make it quite a powerful language.

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