How to Use & and && Operator in MATLAB?

MATLAB is a high-performance language that is used for matrix manipulation, performing technical computations, graph plottings, etc. It stands for Matrix Laboratory. An operator is a symbol that operates on a value to perform specific mathematical or logical computations. They form the foundation of any programming language. Here we see & and && operator in MATLAB.

1. & Operator: It is a logical AND operator but it does not employ Logical Short Circuiting Behaviour. 
2. && Operator: It is also a logical AND operator which works on Logical Short circuiting Behaviour.

Now we see examples for both operators.

Example 1.

% MATLAB code 
a = 5;
b = 10;

% True & false = false
x = (a-b) < 0 & (a/b) < 0; 
disp(x);

% True && true = true
y = (a-b) < 0 && (a/b) > 0; 
disp(y);

% Second expression won't be checked because 1st expression is false
z = (a-b) > 0 && (a/b) > 0; 
disp(z);

Output:

In the above example, we are declaring two variables a = 5 and b = 10.  Now for x, we are using & operator. Here expression A is (a-b) < 0 which is true and expression B is (a/b) < 0 which is false. The logical AND of both expressions will be considered and the output will be stored in x. Here x will store False(0) because the Logical AND of true and false is False.

Now for y, we are using && operator. Here expression A is (a-b) < 0 which is true. So expression B will be considered while calculating y. Expression B is (a/b) > 0 which is true. The logical AND of both expressions will be considered and the output will be stored in y. Here y will store True(1) because the Logical AND of true and true is True.

Now for z, we are using && operator. Here expression A is (a-b) > 0 which is false. So expression B will not be considered while calculating z. Here x will store False(0) because the expression A is false.

Example 2:

% MATLAB code 
a = 100;
b = 10;

% true & true = true
x = (a-b) > 0 & (a/b) > 0; 
disp(x);

% true && true = true
y = (a-b) > 0 && (a/b) > 0; 
disp(y);

% second expression won't be checked 
% because 1st expression is false
z = (a-b) < 0 && (a/b) > 0; 
disp(z);

Output:

Difference Between & Operator and && Operator: