Pipe character in Python

I see a "pipe" character (|) used in a function call:

res = c1.create(go, come, swim, "", startTime, endTime, "OK", ax|bx)

What is the meaning of the pipe in ax|bx?


Solution 1:

This is also the union set operator

set([1,2]) | set([2,3])

This will result in set([1, 2, 3])

Solution 2:

It is a bitwise OR of integers. For example, if one or both of ax or bx are 1, this evaluates to 1, otherwise to 0. It also works on other integers, for example 15 | 128 = 143, i.e. 00001111 | 10000000 = 10001111 in binary.