Boolean Addition Assignment in Python

Question

Instead of writing

a = a or b

for Booleans a and b, I would like to write something like:

a |= b (or equals)

but this doesn't work. Is there an equivalent to this concise statement in Python? Thanks.

Still very different. In the first example, or acts like a null coalescing operator whereas | does bitwise or in the second one. Do print 3 or 5 and 3 | 5 and compare results. — Ozgur Vatansever
– Ozgur Vatansever, Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 12:14
a |= b works iff both are booleans. For everything else use a = a or b, or a |= bool(b) if a is a boolean. — Antti Haapala
– Antti Haapala, Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 12:16

Maresh · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-21 12:35:40Z

1

Please note that

a = a or b

Won't return a boolean per se, but will return a if evaluated truthy (so if it's -1, 1, "a", obj, etc)

| In python (and most languages) is a Bitwise operator

I'm afraid a or b is as short as it gets. But it's already much better than using ternary expression like in C

condition ? expr1 : expr2

In Python

a = a if a else b

answered Oct 21, 2016 at 12:35

Maresh

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