What does || exactly mean?

[Marin]

I'm trying to understand coding in general and I think I know all of the symbols, but this one I'm still not exactly sure about. I googled it quickly but couldn't really find much since google doesn't take "||" in account when searching.
What I thought it meant from the bits of code I read I concluded it would be something like "and", "and if" or perhaps "or if". If someone could answer this with certainty, I'd be able to use it and understand what those big "if"'s that include them mean.

I have two small examples here from PokeBattle_MoveEffects:

    if attacker.status==0 ||
      (attacker.status==PBStatuses::PARALYSIS && !opponent.pbCanParalyze?(attacker,false,self)) ||
      (attacker.status==PBStatuses::SLEEP && !opponent.pbCanSleep?(attacker,false,self)) ||
      (attacker.status==PBStatuses::POISON && !opponent.pbCanPoison?(attacker,false,self)) ||
      (attacker.status==PBStatuses::BURN && !opponent.pbCanBurn?(attacker,false,self)) ||
      (attacker.status==PBStatuses::FROZEN && !opponent.pbCanFreeze?(attacker,false,self))
      @battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("But it failed!"))
      return -1
    end

    if attacker.gender==2 || opponent.gender==2 || attacker.gender==opponent.gender

 

[Black Temple Gaurdian]

or.

 

[Grik]

Yeah it means OR :) So This or This or This etc..

Or maybe it's sideways equals? We'll never truly know

 

[Marin]

or.

Yeah it means OR :) So This or This or This etc..

Or maybe it's sideways equals? We'll never truly know

Alright, thanks!

 

[mej71]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2083112/difference-between-or-and-in-ruby
An important note as to why || is used over explicitly saying 'or' is operator precedence

 

[Rickvs]

For possible future reference, https://symbolhound.com/ is a good search engine that supports special characters. It's very helpful for specific coding questions.

 

[Marin]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2083112/difference-between-or-and-in-ruby
An important note as to why || is used over explicitly saying 'or' is operator precedence

For possible future reference, https://symbolhound.com/ is a good search engine that supports special characters. It's very helpful for specific coding questions.

Thanks for your help. I've also been learning Ruby (programming language Essentials uses) the last few days to help me out in the future. I did encounter || meaning or there, but didn't know about precedences with && || and !. I'll be aware of that in the future.