3/8/2016

Basic operators - Elixir

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Basic operators
In the previous chapter, we saw Elixir provides +, -, *, / as arithmetic

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operators, plus the functions div/2 and rem/2 for integer division and
remainder.

G ETTI N G ST A RTED

1. Introduction
Elixir also provides ++ and -- to manipulate lists:

2. Basic types
3. Basic operators

iex> [1,2,3] ++ [4,5,6]

[1,2,3,4,5,6]
iex> [1,2,3] -- [2]
[1,3]

4. Pattern matching
5. case, cond and if
6. Binaries, strings and char
lists

String concatenation is done with <>:

7. Keywords and maps

8. Modules

iex> "foo" <> "bar"

"foobar"

9. Recursion
10. Enumerables and streams
11. Processes

Elixir also provides three boolean operators: or, and and not. These
operators are strict in the sense that they expect a boolean ( true or false) as
their first argument:

12. IO and the file system

13. alias, require and import
14. Module attributes

iex> true and true

true
iex> false or is_atom(:example)
true

15. Structs
16. Protocols
17. Comprehensions
18. Sigils

Providing a non-boolean will raise an exception:

19. try, catch and rescue

20. Typespecs and behaviours

iex> 1 and true

** (ArgumentError) argument error

or and and are short-circuit operators. They only execute the right side if the

left side is not enough to determine the result:

21. Erlang libraries

22. Where to go next

M IX A N D OTP

1. Introduction to Mix
2. Agent

http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/basic-operators.html

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Basic operators - Elixir

iex> false and raise("This error will never be raised")

false
iex> true or raise("This error will never be raised")
true

3. GenServer
4. Supervisor and Application
5. ETS
6. Dependencies and umbrella
apps

Note:IfyouareanErlangdeveloper, andand orinElixir

actuallymaptothe andalsoand orelseoperatorsinErlang.
Besides these boolean operators, Elixir also provides ||, && and ! which
accept arguments of any type. For these operators, all values except false and

7. Task and gen-tcp

8. Docs, tests and with
9. Distributed tasks and
configuration

nil will evaluate to true:

M ETA -PROG RA M MI N G I N
EL IX I R

# or
iex> 1 || true
1
iex> false || 11
11
# and

1. Quote and unquote

2. Macros
3. Domain Specific Languages

S PON SORS

iex> nil && 13

nil
iex> true && 17
17
#!
iex> !true

EL IX I R RA D AR

false
iex> !1

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false

with content curated by

iex> !nil
true

As a rule of thumb, use and, or and not when you are expecting booleans. If
any of the arguments are non-boolean, use &&, || and !.

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Elixir also provides ==, !=, ===, !==, <=, >=, < and > as comparison

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operators:

iex> 1 == 1
true
iex> 1 != 2
true
iex> 1 < 2
true

http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/basic-operators.html

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Basic operators - Elixir

The difference between == and === is that the latter is more strict when
comparing integers and floats:

iex> 1 == 1.0
true
iex> 1 === 1.0
false

In Elixir, we can compare two different data types:

iex> 1 < :atom

true

The reason we can compare different data types is pragmatism. Sorting

algorithms dont need to worry about different data types in order to sort. The
overall sorting order is defined below:

number < atom < reference < functions < port < pid < tuple <
maps < list < bitstring

You dont actually need to memorize this ordering, but it is important just to
know an order exists.

Operator table
Although we have learned only a handful of operators so far, we present below
the complete operator table for Elixir ordered from higher to lower precedence
for reference:

OPERATOR

ASSOCIATIVITY

Unary

Left to right

+ - ! ^ not ~~~

Unary

* /

Left to right

+ -

Left to right

http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/basic-operators.html

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Basic operators - Elixir

++ -- .. <>

Right to left

in

Left to right

|> <<< >>> ~>> <<~ ~> <~ <~>

Left to right

<|>

< > <= >=

Left to right

== != =~ === !==

Left to right

&& &&& and

Left to right

|| ||| or

Left to right

Right to left

=>

Right to left

Right to left

::

Right to left

when

Right to left

<-, \\

Left to right

&

Unary

We will learn the majority of those operators as we go through the getting

started guide. In the next chapter, we are going to discuss some basic functions,
data type conversions and a bit of control-flow.
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