I remember reading a while back in regards to logical operators that in the case of OR, using || was better than or (or vice versa).
I just had to use this in my project when it came back to me, but I can't remember which operator was recommended or if it was even true.
Which is better and why?
This question is related to
php
operators
logical-operators
or-operator
There is nothing bad or better, It just depends on the precedence of operators. Since || has higher precedence than or, so || is mostly used.
They are used for different purposes and in fact have different operator precedences. The && and || operators are intended for Boolean conditions, whereas and and or are intended for control flow.
For example, the following is a Boolean condition:
if ($foo == $bar && $baz != $quxx) {
This differs from control flow:
doSomething() or die();
Some languages use short-circuit, and others use full Boolean evaluation (if you know, this is similar to the directive $B in Pascal).
Explanations:
function A(){
...Do something..
return true;
}
function B(){
...Do something..
return true;
}
if ( A() OR B() ) { .....
In this example the function B() will never be executed. Since the function A() returns TRUE, the result of the OR statement is known from the first part without it being necessary to evaluate the second part of the expression.
However with ( A() || B() ), the second part is always evaluated regardless of the value of the first.
For optimized programming, you should always use OR which is faster (except for the case when the first part returns false and second part actually needs to be evaluated).
Source: http://wallstreetdeveloper.com/php-logical-operators/
Here is sample code for working with logical operators:
<html>
<head>
<title>Logical</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$a = 10;
$b = 20;
if ($a>$b)
{
echo " A is Greater";
}
elseif ($a<$b)
{
echo " A is lesser";
}
else
{
echo "A and B are equal";
}
?>
<?php
$c = 30;
$d = 40;
//if (($a<$c) AND ($b<$d))
if (($a<$c) && ($b<$d))
{
echo "A and B are larger";
}
if (isset($d))
$d = 100;
echo $d;
unset($d);
?>
<?php
$var1 = 2;
switch($var1)
{
case 1: echo "var1 is 1";
break;
case 2: echo "var1 is 2";
break;
case 3: echo "var1 is 3";
break;
default: echo "var1 is unknown";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
I don't think one is inherently better than another one, but I would suggest sticking with || because it is the default in most languages.
EDIT: As others have pointed out there is indeed a difference between the two.
The difference between respectively || and OR and && and AND is operator precedence :
$bool = FALSE || TRUE;($bool = (FALSE || TRUE))$bool is TRUE$bool = FALSE OR TRUE;(($bool = FALSE) OR TRUE)$bool is FALSE$bool = TRUE && FALSE;($bool = (TRUE && FALSE))$bool is FALSE$bool = TRUE AND FALSE;(($bool = TRUE) AND FALSE)$bool is TRUEI know it's an old topic but still. I've just met the problem in the code I am debugging at work and maybe somebody may have similar issue...
Let's say the code looks like this:
$positions = $this->positions() || [];
You would expect (as you are used to from e.g. javascript) that when $this->positions() returns false or null, $positions is empty array. But it isn't. The value is TRUE or FALSE depends on what $this->positions() returns.
If you need to get value of $this->positions() or empty array, you have to use:
$positions = $this->positions() or [];
EDIT:
The above example doesn't work as intended but the truth is that || and or is not the same... Try this:
<?php
function returnEmpty()
{
//return "string";
//return [1];
return null;
}
$first = returnEmpty() || [];
$second = returnEmpty() or [];
$third = returnEmpty() ?: [];
var_dump($first);
var_dump($second);
var_dump($third);
echo "\n";
This is the result:
bool(false)
NULL
array(0) {
}
So, actually the third option ?: is the correct solution when you want to set returned value or empty array.
$positions = $this->positions() ?: [];
Tested with PHP 7.2.1
Source: Stackoverflow.com