What does the operator |= do in JavaScript?

Question

I found the following code in a JS project:

var a = new Array();
a[0] = 0;
for (var b = 0; b < 10; b++) {
  a[0] |= b; 
}

What does the

Answer 1

a[0] |= b

is basically

a[0] = a[0] | b

"|" is an or bitwise operator

Update When a[0] is assigned 0, a[0] in binary is 0000. In the loop,

1. b = 0

   a[0] = 0 (base 10) = 0000 (base 2)
   b    = 0 (base 10) = 0000 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0000 (base 2) = 0 (base 10)
   

2. b = 1

   a[0] = 0 (base 10) = 0000 (base 2)
   b    = 1 (base 10) = 0001 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0001 (base 2) = 1 (base 10)
   

3. b = 2

   a[0] = 1 (base 10) = 0001 (base 2)
   b    = 2 (base 10) = 0010 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0011 (base 2) = 3 (base 10)
   

4. b = 3

   a[0] = 3 (base 10) = 0011 (base 2)
   b    = 3 (base 10) = 0011 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0011 (base 2) = 3 (base 10)
   

5. b = 4

   a[0] = 3 (base 10) = 0011 (base 2)
   b    = 4 (base 10) = 0100 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0111 (base 2) = 7 (base 10)
   

6. b = 5

   a[0] = 7 (base 10) = 0111 (base 2)
   b    = 5 (base 10) = 0101 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0111 (base 2) = 7 (base 10)
   

7. b = 6

   a[0] = 7 (base 10) = 0111 (base 2)
   b    = 6 (base 10) = 0110 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0111 (base 2) = 7 (base 10)
   

8. b = 7

   a[0] = 7 (base 10) = 0111 (base 2)
   b    = 7 (base 10) = 0111 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 0111 (base 2) = 7 (base 10)
   

9. b = 8

   a[0] = 7 (base 10) = 0111 (base 2)
   b    = 8 (base 10) = 1000 (base 2)
                      ---------------
   a[0] | b           = 1111 (base 2) = 15 (base 10)
   

10. b = 9

    a[0] = 15 (base 10) = 1111 (base 2)
    b    =  9 (base 10) = 1001 (base 2)
                        ---------------
    a[0] | b            = 1111 (base 2) = 15 (base 10)
    

At the end of the loop the value of a[0] is 15