What does the |= Operator mean?

Question

In some code i found this |= operator used to return a uint but i can find something about it on the internet and i wanna understand how it works and what are the return values in this case.

public uint Mask
{
    get
    {
        uint num = 0;
        if (_0)
            num |= 1U;
        if (_1)
            num |= 2U;
        if (_2)
            num |= 4U;
        return num;
    }
}

a detailed answer will be much appreciated.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/h5f1zzaw.aspx perhaps this link will help — Bojan B, Nov 15 '16 at 09:12
[MSDN page](https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/h5f1zzaw.aspx) on the ```|=``` operator — Jules, Nov 15 '16 at 09:12
It's the binary OR combined with an assignment. Like += or -=. — Lennart, Nov 15 '16 at 09:12
Possible duplicate of [what does |= (single pipe equal) and &=(single ampersand equal) mean](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6942477/what-does-single-pipe-equal-and-single-ampersand-equal-mean) — Thilo, Nov 15 '16 at 09:13
thanks guys but i really did a google search and nothing came up. sorry if it is a duplicate. — Daniel Eugen, Nov 15 '16 at 09:18

LordWilmore · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-15T09:15:37.783

29

You know how x += 1 means x = x + 1, well x |= 1 means x = x | 1. Of course | means bitwise OR.

edited Nov 15 '16 at 09:15

answered Nov 15 '16 at 09:12

LordWilmore

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i wasn't expecting that, what a shame :D. thanks for your answer dude. – Daniel Eugen Nov 15 '16 at 09:15

What does the |= Operator mean?

1 Answers1