Sometimes in programming they allow one to chain parameters in a single function input variable like the second input variable below:
define('FLAGA',40);
define('FLAGB',10);
define('FLAGC',3);
function foo($sFile, $vFlags) {
// do something
}
foo('test.txt',FLAGA | FLAGB | FLAGC);
PHP calls this single pipe character (|)
the Bitwise OR
operator. How do I now add something inside foo()
to test $vFlags
to see which flags were set?
I think you'll find that flags like this are normally defined as powers of 2, e.g.:
define('FLAGA',1);
define('FLAGB',2);
define('FLAGC',4); /* then 8, 16, 32, etc... */
As you rightly stated, these can be combined by using a bitwise OR operator:
foo('test.txt',FLAGA | FLAGB | FLAGC);
To test these flags inside your function, you need to use a bitwise AND operator as follows:
function foo($sFile, $vFlags) {
if ($vFlags & FLAGA) {
// FLAGA was set
}
if ($vFlags & FLAGB) {
// FLAGB was set
}
//// etc...
}