Operators

An operator is a symbol which has special meaning and performs an operation on single or multiple operands like addition, substraction etc. Ruby provides rich set of in-built operators.

Types of Operators in Ruby

1. Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to perform arithmetic operations on operands.

Operator	Description	Example
+	Used to perform Addition	8+2 = 10
-	Used to perform Subtraction	12-2 = 10
*	Used to perform Multiplication	5*2 = 10
/	Used to perform Division and returns float values	10/3 = 3.3333
%	Used to return Remainder	40%10 = 0
**	Used to raise power of another operand	x ** y = x to the power of y

2. Comparison Operators

Comparison operators are used to compare two operands.

Operator	Description	Usage
==	Is equal to	x == y
!=	Not equal to	!=x
>	Greater than	x > y
>=	Greater than or equal to	x >= y
<	Less than	x < y
<=	Less than or equal to	x <= y
<=>	combined comparision operator	x <=> y
===	equality operator	(1...5) === 3
.eql?	equality operator, returns true one if both are of same type and equal values	x.eql?y
equal?	equality operator, returns true one if both are of same object ID	x.equal?y

3. Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators are used to perform bitwise operations on operands.

Operator	Description	Usage
&	Bitwise AND	(x > y) & (y > z)
\|	Bitwise OR	(x > y) \| (y > z)
^	Bitwise XOR	(x > y) ^ (y > z)
~	Bitwise NOT	(~x)
<<	Bitwise Left Shift	x << y
>>	Bitwise Right Shift	x >> y

4. Logical Operators

Logical operators are as shown below:

Operator	Description	Usage
&&	Logical AND	(x > y) && (y > z)
\|\|	Logical OR	(x > y) \|\| (y > z)
!	Logical NOT	(!x)
and	Logical AND	(x > y) and (y > z)
or	Logical OR	(x > y) or (y > z)
not	Logical NOT	not(x && y)

5. Assignment Operators

Assignment operators are as shown below:

Operator	Description	Usage
=	Assign	x = 10;
+=	Add and assign	x=10; x+=30; #x becomes 40
-=	Subtract and assign	x=40; x-=10; #x becomes 30
*=	Multiply and assign	x=10; x*=40; #x becomes 400
/=	Divide and assign	x=100; x /= 10; #x becomes 10
%=	Modulus and assign	x=100; x%=10; #x becomes 0
**=	exponential calculation and assign	`x = y is equivalent to x = xy`

6. Ternary Operator

If the operator is applied on a three operands then it is called ternary. This is also known as conditional operator as a condition is followed by ? and true-expression which is followed by a : and false expression. This is oftenly used as a shortcut to replace if-else statement

Operator	Description	Usage
? :	Conditional Expression	(x > y) ? (code if x > y) : (code if x < y)

7. Range Operators

Below are the range operators:

Operator	Description	Usage
..	Creates a range from start to end including end range	1..10, creates a range from 1 to 10
...	Creates a range from start to end excluding end range	1...10, creates a range from 1 to 9

8. Special Operators

Operator	Description	Usage
defined?	It is a special operator which is like a method call, returns a description string of the expression if defined else nil	defined? variable or a method call
dot(.)	Used to refer a method present in a module	modulename.method
::	Used to refer constants, instance methods and class methods defined within a class or module, to be accessed from anywhere outside the class or module	Modulename::const

Summary

Type	Operators
Arithmetic Operators	+ , - , * , / , % , **
Comparision Operators	== , != , > , >= , < , <= , <=>, .eql?, ===, equal?
Bitwise Operators	& , ^ , \| , ^ , ~ , << , >>
Logical Operators	&& , \|\| , ! , and , or, not
Assignment Operators	= , += , -= , = , /= , %= , *=
Ternary Operators	? :
Range Operators	.. , ...
Special Operators	defined?, . , ::