Ruby Operators

Operators are special symbols that perform operations on variables and values. For example,

 puts 5 + 6 # Output: 11

Here, + is an operator that adds two numbers: 5 and 6.

Types of Ruby Operators

Here's a list of different types of Ruby operators that we will learn in this tutorial:

1. Arithmetic Operators
2. Assignment Operators
3. Comparison Operators
4. Logical Operators
5. Bitwise Operators
6. Ternary Operator

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to perform mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. For example,

 mult = 2 * 5 puts mult # Output: 10

Here, * is an arithmetic operator that multiplies two values 2 and 5.

Some commonly used arithmetic operators are:

Example 1: Arithmetic Operators

Let's explore an example to see how various arithmetic operators work.

 a = 7 b = 2 # Addition puts a + b # Output: 9 # Subtraction puts a - b # Output: 5 # Multiplication puts a * b # Output: 14 # Division # Ruby performs integer division when both values are integers. # So,it returns only the whole number part. puts a / b # Output: 3 # Modulo puts a % b # Output: 1 # Exponentiation puts a ** b # Output: 49

Assignment Operators

The assignment operator = is used to assign values to a variable. For example,

 # Assigns 5 to num num = 5 puts num

Output

 5

Here, we've used the = operator to assign the value 5 to the variable num.

Some commonly used assignment operators in Ruby are:

Example 2: Assignment Operators

 # Using Assignment Operator num = 7 # Using Addition Assignment num += 5 puts "After += 5: #{num}" # Using Subtraction Assignment num -= 2 puts "After -= 2: #{num}" # Using Multiplication Assignment num *= 3 puts "After *= 3: #{num}" # Using Division Assignment num /= 2 puts "After /= 2: #{num}" # Using Remainder Assignment num %= 4 puts "After %= 4: #{num}" # Using Exponentiation Assignment num **= 2 puts "After **= 2: #{num}" 

Output

 After += 5: 12 After -= 2: 10 After *= 3: 30 After /= 2: 15 After %= 4: 3 After **= 2: 9

Here, after each assignment, the value of num changes, and the new value is used in the next step.

Comparison Operators

The comparison operators compare two values and return a boolean value (true or false) based on the comparison result. For example,

 a = 2 b = 5 # Checks if 'a' is less than 'b' puts a < b # Output: true

Here, we've used the less than (<) comparison operator to compare the values of a and b. Since 2 is less than 5, the expression a < b evaluates to true.

Some commonly used comparison operators are:

Example 3: Comparison Operators

 a = 5 b = 2 # Equal to operator puts "#{a} == #{b} is #{a == b}" # Not equal to operator puts "#{a} != #{b} is #{a != b}" # Greater than operator puts "#{a} > #{b} is #{a > b}" # Less than operator puts "#{a} < #{b} is #{a < b}" # Greater than or equal to operator puts "#{a} >= #{b} is #{a >= b}" # Less than or equal to operator puts "#{a} <= #{b} is #{a <= b}" # Combined comparison operator puts "#{a} <=> #{b} is #{a <=> b}"

Output

 5 == 2 is false 5 != 2 is true 5 > 2 is true 5 < 2 is false 5 >= 2 is true 5 <= 2 is false 5 <=> 2 is 1

Logical Operators

Logical operators are used to check whether an expression is true or false. They are used in decision-making. For example,

 a = 3 b = 6 puts (a > 2) && (b >= 6) # Output: true

Here, we've used the logical AND operator (&&). Since both a > 2 and b >= 6 are true, the result is true.

The commonly used logical operators are:

Example 4: Logical Operators

 # Logical AND has_password = true has_username = true can_login = has_password && has_username puts "Can login: #{can_login}" # Logical OR is_weekday = false is_holiday = true can_relax = is_weekday || is_holiday puts "Can relax: #{can_relax}" # Logical NOT is_busy = false is_free = !is_busy puts "Is free: #{is_free}" 

Output

 Can login: true Can relax: true Is free: true

Here,

Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators act on operands as if they were strings of binary digits. They operate bit by bit, hence the name.

In the table below:

Let a = 10 (0000 1010 in binary) and b = 4 (0000 0100 in binary)

Note: Binary values are shown in 8-bit format for clarity. Ruby uses arbitrary-precision integers, so actual storage may differ.

Ternary Operator

The ternary operator in Ruby consists of three parts:

• A condition.
• An expression to execute if the condition is true.
• Another expression to execute if the condition is false.

The syntax of the ternary operator is:

 condition ? Expression1 : Expression2

Let's see a simple example of the ternary operator.

 age = 18 can_vote = age >= 18 ? "Yes, you can vote." : "No, you cannot vote." puts can_vote 

Output

 Yes, you can vote.

Here,

• Condition: age >= 18 checks if age is 18 or greater.
• Expression1: "Yes, you can vote." is returned if the condition is true.
• Expression2: "No, you cannot vote." is returned if the condition is false.

 greeting = "hello" puts greeting.upcase # Output: HELLO

 puts Math::PI # Output: 3.141592653589793

 x = 10 puts defined? x # Output: local-variable puts defined? puts # Output: method puts defined? y # Output: nil