Python Essentials

Using bits and Boolean values

As noted earlier, the bit-oriented operators &, |, ^, and ~ have nothing to do with Python's actual Boolean operators and, or, not, and if-else. We'll look at Boolean values, logic operators, and related programming in Chapter 5, Logic, Comparisons, and Conditions.

If we misuse the bit-oriented operators & or | in place of a logical and or or, things may appear very peculiar:

>>> 5 > 6 & 3 > 1
True
>>> (5 > 6) & (3 > 1)
False

The first example is clearly wrong. Why? This is because the & operator has relatively high priority. It's not a logical connective, it's more like an arithmetic operator. The & operator is performed first: 6&3 evaluates to 2. Given this, the resulting expression, 5 > 2 > 1, is True.

When we group ...