bitwise or
The bitwise OR operator in C++ is the vertical bar symbol, |. Like the & operator, | operates independently each bit in its two surrounding integer expressions, but what it does is different (of course). The bitwise OR of two bits is 1 if either or both of the input bits is 1, otherwise it is 0. In other words:
0 | 0 == 0
0 | 1 == 1
1 | 0 == 1
1 | 1 == 1
Here is an example of the bitwise OR used in a snippet of C++ code:
int a = 92; // in binary: 0000000001011100
int b = 101; // in binary: 0000000001100101
int c = a | b; // result: 0000000001111101, or 125 in decimal.
Bitwise OR is often used to make sure that a given bit is turned on (set to 1) in a given expression. For example, to copy the bits from a into b, while making sure the lowest bit is set to 1, use the following code:
b = a | 1;
