A clear, layman's explanation of the difference between | and || in c#?

Question

Ok, so I\'ve read about this a number of times, but I\'m yet to hear a clear, easy to understand (and memorable) way to learn the difference between:

if (x |         


        

Answer 1

Although it's already been said and answered correctly I thought I'd add a real layman's answer since alot of the time that's what I feel like on this site :). Plus I'll add the example of & vs. && since it's the same concept

| vs ||

Basically you tend to use the || when you only wnat to evaluate the second part IF the first part it FALSE. So this:

if (func1() || func2()) {func3();}

is the same as

if (func1())
{
    func3();
}
else 
{
    if (func2()) {func3();}
}

This may be a way to save processing time. If func2() took a long time to process, you wouldn't want to do it if func1() was already true.

& vs &&

In the case of & vs. && it's a similar situation where you only evaluate the second part IF the first part is TRUE. For example this:

if (func1() && func2()) {func3();}

is the same as

if (func1())
{
    if (func2()) {func3();}}
}

This can be necessary since func2() may depend on func1() first being true. If you used & and func1() evaluated to false, & would run func2() anyways, which could cause a runtime error.

Jeff the Layman