There are three logical operators in JavaScript: || (OR), && (AND), ! (NOT).
Although they are called “logical”, they can be applied to values of any type, not only boolean. The result can also be of any type.
Let’s see the details.
The “OR” operator is represented with two vertical line symbols:
result = a || b;
In classical programming, logical OR is meant to manipulate boolean values only. If any of its arguments are true, then it returns true, otherwise it returns false.
In JavaScript the operator is a little bit more tricky and powerful. But first let’s see what happens with boolean values.
There are four possible logical combinations:
alert( true || true ); // true
alert( false || true ); // true
alert( true || false ); // true
alert( false || false ); // false
As we can see, the result is always true except for the case when both operands are false.
If an operand is not boolean, then it’s converted to boolean for the evaluation.
For instance, a number 1 is treated as true, a number 0– as false:
if (1 || 0) { // works just like if( true || false )
alert( 'truthy!' );
}
Most of the time, OR || is used in an if statement to test if any of the given conditions is correct.
For example:
let hour = 9;
if (hour < 10 || hour > 18) {
alert( 'The office is closed.' );
}
We can pass more conditions:
let hour = 12;
let isWeekend = true;
if (hour < 10 || hour > 18 || isWeekend) {
alert( 'The office is closed.' ); // it is the weekend
}
The logic described above is somewhat classical. Now let’s bring in the “extra” features of JavaScript.
The extended algorithm works as follows.
Given multiple OR’ed values:
result = value1 || value2 || value3;
The OR "||" operator does the following:
-
Evaluate operands from left to right.
-
For each operand, convert it to boolean. If the result is
true, then stop and return the original value of that operand. -
If all other operands have been assessed (i.e. all were
falsy), return the last operand.
A value is returned in its original form, without the conversion.
In other words, a chain of OR "||" returns the first truthy value or the last one if no such value is found.
For instance:
alert( 1 || 0 ); // 1 (1 is truthy)
alert( true || 'no matter what' ); // (true is truthy)
alert( null || 1 ); // 1 (1 is the first truthy value)
alert( null || 0 || 1 ); // 1 (the first truthy value)
alert( undefined || null || 0 ); // 0 (all falsy, returns the last value)
That leads to some interesting usages compared to a “pure, classical, boolean-only OR”.
- Getting the first truthy value from the list of variables or expressions.
Imagine we have several variables, which can either contain the data or be null/undefined. And we need to choose the first one with data.
We can use OR || for that:
let currentUser = null;
let defaultUser = "John";
let name = currentUser || defaultUser || "unnamed";
alert( name ); // selects "John" – the first truthy value
If both currentUser and defaultUser were falsy then "unnamed" would be the result.
- Short-circuit evaluation.
Operands can be not only values, but arbitrary expressions. OR evaluates and tests them from left to right. The evaluation stops when a truthy value is reached, and the value is returned. The process is called “a short-circuit evaluation”, because it goes as short as possible from left to right.
This is clearly seen when the expression given as the second argument has a side effect. Like a variable assignment.
If we run the example below, x would not get assigned:
let x;
true || (x = 1);
alert(x); // undefined, because (x = 1) not evaluated
... And if the first argument is false, then OR goes on and evaluates the second one thus running the assignment:
let x;
false || (x = 1);
alert(x); // 1
An assignment is a simple case, other side effects can be involved.
As we can see, such a use case is a "shorter way to do if". The first operand is converted to boolean and if it’s false then the second one is evaluated.
Most of time it’s better to use a “regular” if to keep the code easy to understand, but sometimes that can be handy.
The AND operator is represented with two ampersands &&:
result = a && b;
In classical programming AND returns true if both operands are truthy and false otherwise:
alert( true && true ); // true
alert( false && true ); // false
alert( true && false ); // false
alert( false && false ); // false
An example with if:
let hour = 12;
let minute = 30;
if (hour == 12 && minute == 30) {
alert( 'Time is 12:30' );
}
Just as for OR, any value is allowed as an operand of AND:
if (1 && 0) { // evaluated as true && false
alert( "won't work, because the result is falsy" );
}
Given multiple AND’ed values:
result = value1 && value2 && value3;
The AND "&&" operator does the following:
-
Evaluate operands from left to right.
-
For each operand, convert it to a boolean. If the result is
false, stop and return the original value of that operand. -
If all other operands have been assessed (i.e. all were truthy), return the last operand.
In other words, AND returns the first falsy value or the last value if none were found.
The rules above are similar to OR. The difference is that AND returns the first falsy value while OR returns the first truthy one.
Examples:
// if the first operand is truthy,
// AND returns the second operand:
alert( 1 && 0 ); // 0
alert( 1 && 5 ); // 5
// if the first operand is falsy,
// AND returns it. The second operand is ignored
alert( null && 5 ); // null
alert( 0 && "no matter what" ); // 0
We can also pass several values in a row. See how the first falsy one is returned:
alert( 1 && 2 && null && 3 ); // null
When all values are truthy, the last value is returned:
alert( 1 && 2 && 3 ); // 3, the last one
The precedence of the AND && operator is higher than OR ||, so it executes before OR.
In the code below 1 && 0 is calculated first:
alert( 5 || 1 && 0 ); // 5
Just like OR, the AND && operator can sometimes replace if.
For instance:
let x = 1;
(x > 0) && alert( 'Greater than zero!' );
The action in the right part of && would execute only if the evaluation reaches it. That is: only if (x > 0) is true.
So we basically have an analogue for:
let x = 1;
if (x > 0) {
alert( 'Greater than zero!' );
}
The variant with && appears to be shorter. But if is more obvious and tends to be a little bit more readable.
So it is recommended to use every construct for its purpose. Use if if we want if. And use && if we want AND.
The boolean NOT operator is represented with an exclamation sign "!".
The syntax is pretty simple:
result = !value;
The operator accepts a single argument and does the following:
-
Converts the operand to boolean type:
true/false. -
Returns an inverse value.
For instance:
alert( !true ); // false
alert( !0 ); // true
A double NOT !! is sometimes used for converting a value to boolean type:
alert( !!"non-empty string" ); // true
alert( !!null ); // false
That is, the first NOT converts the value to boolean and returns the inverse, and the second NOT inverses it again. At the end we have a plain value-to-boolean conversion.
There’s a little more verbose way to do the same thing – a built-in Boolean function:
alert( Boolean("non-empty string") ); // true
alert( Boolean(null) ); // false