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Boolean Expressions

Boolean expressions are used to evaluate conditions that result in true or false. They can be combined using basic logical operators like AND (&&), OR (||), and NOT (!). Parentheses are used to group parts of complex expressions. Arithmetic comparisons like <, >, == also evaluate to booleans. Boolean expressions are commonly used in if/else conditional statements but can appear elsewhere too. When multiple operators are present, precedence and parentheses determine order of operations. For style, it is better to write conditions positively without redundancy like if(danger) rather than if(danger == true).

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155 views3 pages

Boolean Expressions

Boolean expressions are used to evaluate conditions that result in true or false. They can be combined using basic logical operators like AND (&&), OR (||), and NOT (!). Parentheses are used to group parts of complex expressions. Arithmetic comparisons like <, >, == also evaluate to booleans. Boolean expressions are commonly used in if/else conditional statements but can appear elsewhere too. When multiple operators are present, precedence and parentheses determine order of operations. For style, it is better to write conditions positively without redundancy like if(danger) rather than if(danger == true).

Uploaded by

Marvin Bucsit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Boolean Expressions index

BASIC

A boolean expression is an expression that results in a boolean value, that is, in a value
of either true or false.

More complex boolean expressions can be built out of simpler expressions, using the
following boolean operators:

Name of
Operator What it means Example
operator
True if and only if both
&& and wet && cold
sides are true
True if either side is true rich || famous
|| or
(or if both are true)
Changes true to false, and
! not !happy
false to true
True if either side is true walking ^
^ exclusive or
(but not both) ridingBus

Parentheses can be used for grouping the parts of complex boolean expressions. For
example:

if ((wet && cold) || (poor && hungry)) {

System.out.println("I'm miserable!");

The println statement will be executed if wet and cold are both true, or if poor and
hungry are both true.

There are six arithmetic tests that can be used to create boolean values:

Operator Name of operator


< less than
<= less than or equal to
== equal to
!= not equal to
>= greater than or equal to
> greater than

These have the obvious meanings, and can be combined with the boolean operators. For
example:

if (score < 0 || score > 100) {

System.out.println("Score has an illegal value.");

Boolean expressions are most often used as conditions (as in the examples above).
However, they may be used other places as well, for example:

comfortable = warm && dry;

System.out.println(x >= 0 && x <= 100);

printResults(data, verbose);

When an expression contains two or more operators, the order in which operations are
done is defined by parentheses and by the precedence of the operators. Thus, for example,
the following two expressions are equivalent.

x > 1 && x < 100 || x == 300 ((x > 1) && (x < 100)) || (x == 300)

STYLE

It is poor style to compare a condition to true or false:

Poor style Better style

if (danger == true) { if (danger) {


System.out.println("Run away!"); System.out.println("Run away!");

} }

if (danger == false) { if (!danger) {

System.out.println("Relax."); System.out.println("Relax.");

} }

The comparison is redundant and just looks silly.

Double negations (or worse) should be avoided:

Poor style Better style

if (!danger) { if (danger) {

System.out.println("Stay here"); System.out.println("Run away!");

} }

else { else {

System.out.println("Run away!"); System.out.println("Stay here");

} }

if (!illegalMove(i, j)) { if (legalMove(i, j)) {

move(i, j); move(i, j);

} }

To help avoid double negations, boolean methods should be given positive names such as
legalMove or gameOver, not negative ones such as illegalMove or gameNotOver.

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