What is “And” Operator in Python and How to Use It

The and operator returns True if both statements are True. To use an and operator in Python, use the keyword and instead of && because there is no && operator in Python.

Using && operator, you will get the SyntaxError. Likewise, || and ! are not valid Python operators. So instead, use or and not operators.

Python operation contains two elements

1. OPERATORS: These are special symbols like +, *, /, etc.
2. OPERAND: It is the value on which the operator is applied.

What is an operator in Python?

The operators are used to perform operations variables.

Python has two types of related and confusing operators.

1. Logical Operator
2. Bitwise Operator

To use the logical AND operator, use and.

To use the logical OR operator, use or.

To use the logical NOT operator, use not.

The & and | is bitwise operators in Python. So don’t confuse these operators.

Logical Operators Table

The logical operators have bitwise/binary operators in Python.

The logical operators have the advantage that they are short-circuited. For example, the second operator isn’t evaluated if the first operand already defines the result.

As we know, the and is a Logical AND operator in Python that returns True if both the operands are true.

x = 19
y = 21

print(x and y)

Output

21

We get the 21 because the ‘and‘ tests whether both expressions are logically True.

Here, the compiler checks if the statement is True or False.

However, If the first statement is False, it does not check the second statement and returns False immediately. This is known as “lazy evaluation”.

If the first statement is True, then the second condition is checked, and according to the rules of AND operation,

True is the result only if both statements are True.

& in Python(Bitwise)

The ‘&’ is a bitwise operator in Python that acts on bits and performs bit-by-bit operations.

x = 19
y = 21

print(x & y)

Output

17

The ‘&’ performs a bitwise AND operation on the result of both statements.

FAQ

What is the and operator in Python?

The “and” operator is a logical operator in Python that returns True if both operands are True and False otherwise.

How to use the and operator in Python?

You can use the “and” operator in Python to combine two boolean expressions.

x = 19
y = 21
if x > 0 and y > 0:
  print("Both x and y are positive")

Output

Both x and y are positive

What is short-circuit evaluation in Python?

Short-circuit evaluation is a feature of the “and” and “or” operators in Python that evaluates the operands from left to right and stops as soon as the result of the expression can be defined. For example, if the first operand of an and expression is False, the second operand will not be evaluated because the overall result of the expression will be False.

What happens if you use the and operator with non-boolean values in Python?

When you use the “and” operator with non-boolean values in Python, the operands will be implicitly converted to boolean values using Python’s true value testing rules. For example, empty sequences like “” and [] are considered False, while non-empty sequences are considered True.

What is the precedence of the “and” operator in Python?

The “and” operator has higher precedence than the or operator in Python but lower precedence than comparison operators like < and >.

You can use parentheses to group expressions and control the order of evaluation.

Conclusion

The “and” operator in Python is a logical operator that returns True if both its operands are True and False otherwise. It is naturally used in if statements to test multiple conditions and supports short-circuit evaluation.

That is it for and in Python.

See also

Python XOR

Python Not In

Python Merge