Operators in Ruby
An operator is a programming entity that represents an operation to be performed with one or more operand. Operators are the foundation of any programming language. Operators allow us to perform different kinds of operations on operands.
| Most operators are actually method calls. For example, 'a + b' is interpreted as 'a.+(b)', where the '+' method is being called by variable 'a' with 'b' as its argument. |
Ruby has a rich set of built-in operators.
Types of operators
- Arithmetic operators
- Assignment operators
- Comparison operators
- Logical operators
- Ternary operator
- Range operators
- Bitwise operators
Let’s learn about each type of operators in brief.
Arithmetic Operators
These operators take numerical values as their operands and return a single numerical value as result.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| + | Adds values on either side of the operator | 10 + 5 is 15 |
| - | Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand | 10 - 5 is 5 |
| * | Perform multiplication between two operands | 10 * 5 is 50 |
| / | Divides left hand operand by right hand operand | 10 / 5 is 2 |
| % | Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and return the modulus | 10 % 5 is 0 |
| ** | Performs exponential (power) calculation on operands | 10**5 is 100_000 |
Assignment Operators
These operators assign a value to the operands.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| = | Simple assignment | number = 10 |
| += | Add assignment | number += 5 ( i.e., number = number + 5) |
| -= | Subtract assignment | number -= 5 (i.e., number = number - 5) |
| *= | Multiply assignment | number *= 5 (i.e., number = number * 5) |
| /= | Division assignment | number /= 5 (i.e., number = number / 5) |
| %= | Modulus assignment | number %= 5 (i.e., number = number % 5) |
| **= | Exponential assignment | number **= 5 (i.e., number = number**5) |
Parallel Assignment Operator
Ruby also supports the parallel assignment of variables. This enables multiple variables to be initialized with a single line of Ruby code.
a = 10
b = 20
c = 30
# or following line results in similar behavior
a, b, c = 10, 20, 30
Parallel assignment is also useful for swapping the values held in two variables without us needing to have a temporary variable.
a = 10
b = 20
a, b = b, a
puts a # 20
puts b # 10
Comparison Operators
These operators perform a comparison between two operands.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| == | Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not | (10 == 10) is true |
| != | Checks if the value of two operands are not equal or not | (10 != 10) is false |
| > | Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand | (10 > 5) is true |
| < | Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand | (10 < 5) is false |
| >= | Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand | (5 <= 10) is true |
| <= | Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand | (5 >= 10) is false |
| <=> | Combined comparison operator. Returns 0 if first operand equals second, 1 if first operand is greater than the second and -1 if first operand is less than the second | (5 <=> 10) is -1 |
| === | Case equality operator. Used to test equality within a when clause of a case statement |
(1...10) === 5 is true |
| .eql? | Return true if the receiver and argument have both the same type and equal values |
1 == 1.0 returns true, but 1.eql?(1.0) is false |
| .equal? | Return true if the receiver and argument have the same object id |
("xyz" == "xyz"), ("xyz".eql? "xyz") return false while ("xyz".equal? "xyz") return true |
Logical Operators
These operators are used to combine two or more conditions or to complement the evaluation of the original condition in consideration. They first convert their operands to boolean values and then perform the respective comparison.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| && | AND operator. If both the operands are non zero, then the condition becomes true. and is its alternative operator. |
(false && true) is false |
| || | OR operator. If any of the two operands are non zero, then the condition becomes true. or is its alternative operator. |
(false or true) is true |
| ! | NOT operator. Use to reverses the logical state of its operand. not is its alternative operator. |
!(false && true) is true |
These are also called Boolean operators which work on Boolean datatype. See Boolean Dataype.
Best Practice
Use &&/|| for boolean expressions, and/or for control flow. (source).
# boolean expression
if condition1 && condition2
do_something
end
# boolean expression in "guard statement" form.
do_something if condition1 && condition2
# control flow
document.saved? or document.save!
Ternary Operator
Ruby has only one ternary operator.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ?: | Conditional Expression | 5 < 10 ? "less than" : "equal or greater than" |
BEST PRACTICE: Use ternary operator for the following type of if…else scenario.
answer = if 5 < 10
"less than"
else
"equal or greater than"
end
Range Operators
Range operators create a range of successive values consisting of a start, end, and all values in between.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| .. | Values includes the last term | (1..5).to_a results [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] |
| … | Values excludes the last term | (1...5).to_a results [1, 2, 3, 4] |
Bitwise Operators
Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit by bit operation.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| & | Bitwise AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both operands | 0b1010 & 0b0111 is 0b0010 |
| | | Bitwise OR Operator copies a bit if it exists in either operand | 0b1010 | 0b0111 is 0b1111 |
| ^ | Bitwise XOR Operator copies the bit which is absent in both | 0b1010 | 0b0111 is 0b1101 |
| ~ | Bitwise Inverse/Complement Operator and it flip the bits. Make 0 to 1 or vice-versa |
~0b1010 is 0b0101 |
| « | Bitwise Left Shift Operator moves the input bits left by a specified number of places. | 0b1010 << 4 is 0b10100000 |
| » | Bitwise Right Shift Operator moves input bits right by a certain number of places | 0b1010 >> 4 is 0b0000 |
Scope (::) Operator
The :: operator is used to access the constants, instance methods and class methods defined within a class or module from anywhere outside the class or module.
| In Ruby, classes and methods may be considered constants, too. |
NAME = "foo" # constant defined (assigned) on main Object class
module Foo
NAME = "bar"
::NAME = "zoo" # reassign global name to zoo
NAME = "baz" # reassign local name to baz
end
puts NAME # output: zoo (this is the global constant)
puts Foo::NAME # output: baz (this is the local "Foo" constant)
Operator Precedence
The following table shows the precedence level from highest to lowest.
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
:: |
Constant resolution operator |
[], []= |
Element reference, element set |
** |
Exponentiation |
!, ~, +, - |
Boolean NOT, bitwise complement, unary plus and minus |
*, /, % |
Multiplication, division, modulo |
+, - |
Addition, Subtraction |
>>, << |
Bitwise shift operators |
& |
Bitwise AND |
^, \| |
Bitwise XOR and OR |
<=, <, >, >= |
Comparison operators |
<=>, ==, ===, !=, =~, !~ |
Equality, pattern matching and comparison |
&& |
Logical AND |
|| |
Logical OR |
.., ... |
Range operators |
?: |
Ternary if-then-else |
=, %=, */, /=, -=, +=, |=, &=, >>=, <<=, *=, &&=, ||=, **= |
Assignment operators |
defined? |
Test variable definition and type |
not |
Boolean NOT |
or, and |
Boolean OR, Boolean AND |
begin… end |
Blocks |
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