BIT_OR

Performs a bitwise OR operation on an integer expression, ignoring null input values. Bitwise OR compares two bits and returns 1 if either is 1, and 0 otherwise.

Numbers are represented in two’s complement, a binary method for signed integers, as follows:

  • Positive numbers are represented in standard binary form, while negative numbers are derived by inverting the bits of their positive counterpart and adding 1.
  • A leftmost bit of 0 indicates a positive number, while 1 indicates a negative number.

Syntax 

BIT_OR
([ DISTINCT ] <expression>)

Note: DISTINCT has no effect on the function’s result.

Parameters

Parameter Description Supported input types
<expression> The expression used to compute the result. INT, BIGINT

Return Types

The BIT_OR function returns a result of either type INT or BIGINT, depending on the type of the input.

Examples

Example

The following code example performs a bitwise OR operation across a series of integers ranging from 1 to 3:

SELECT BIT_OR(a)
FROM GENERATE_SERIES(1, 3) as a;

Returns: The previous code example returns 3. In a 4-bit system, the binary representation of integers from 1 to 3 is:

  • 1 -> 0001
  • 2 -> 0010
  • 3 -> 0011

The bitwise OR of 0001 and 0010 is 0011, which equals 3. The bitwise OR between 0011 and itself is 0011, or 3.

Example

The following code example performs a bitwise OR operation across a series of integers ranging from -1 to 1:

SELECT BIT_OR(a)
FROM generate_series(-1, 1) as a;

Returns: The previous code example returns -1. In a 4-bit system, the binary representation of integers from -1 to 1 is:

  • -1 -> 1111
  • 0 -> 0000
  • 1 -> 0001

The bitwise OR of 1111 and any integer is 1111, or -1.