Is there a difference between using a logical operator or a bitwise operator in an if block in Java?

Question

The contents of both of the following if blocks should be executed:

if( booleanFunction() || otherBooleanFunction() ) {...}
if( booleanFunction() | otherBool         


        

Answer 1

for programmers, there is only one difference.

1. your logical operators are logical ones,i.e. they test only one condition and get result based on that.

booleanFunction() || otherBooleanFunction() will be true if either is true. likewise, booleanFunction() && otherBooleanFunction() will be false if either is false. So, why test the other one. that's what logical operators do.

But bitwise ones check both. A frequent application of this concept is as follows.

if(someObject != null && someObject.somemethod())

So, in this case if you replace && by & then wait for a disaster. You will get nasty NullPointerException soon...