When to use || vs. OR in ColdFusion in a <cfif>?

Question

When do I use an "OR" vs a || in a ColdFusion cfif statement?

Solution 1

Double pipe (as well as double ampersand) are supported in ColdFusion since CF8. Since learning that, I always use double pipe/double ampersand instead of OR/AND. The reason why I code with this style is that "OR" is not completely descriptive with regards to the operation being performed. There's bitwise-OR, logical-OR, and logical-OR with short-circuiting.

Bitwise OR: 01 | 10 = 11

Logical OR: buildErrorsOn(form.varA) | buildErrorsOn(form.varB)

Logical OR (short-circuit): isDefined('url.doStuff') || isDefined('url.doStuff')

In just about any language you could use right now (Oracle seeming to be a notable exception), double pipe always means Logical-OR with short-circuiting. It's a precise notation.

Solution 2

I prefer || in CFSCRIPT and OR in CFML.

Solution 3

There may be support in CF9 that brings parity to those keywords, though I couldn't find a reference to indicate that. Really, you are probably better off just using the OR keyword in CFIF, and saving the || for string concatenation in SQL queries.

Solution 4

It looks like || has been supported since CF8. CF8 documentation

I always find "or" more intuitive. (For that matter, I always use "+" for string concatenation in SQL - or is that exclusive to SQL Server?)

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Comments

[Leigh]

Yes, for sql "+" is SQL Server specific. If memory serves, Oracle uses "||" (confusingly ;), MySQL CONCAT(), ...

[Matt Gutting]

One would hope (or wish, at least) there could be agreement at least on a simple logical operator :-/

[Leigh]

Though I do prefer || and &&, I have to admit it is a lot more likely one would mistake || for | than it is to mistake the long-hand versions OR and BitOr. At least at first ..

[Leigh]

Haha.. we can wish. But that is about all.