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Operator Description

bit operator or, bitwise or. Performs or (OR) operations for each pair of bits. If a or b is 1, a OR b has a result of 1.

The result type depends on whether the parameter is a binary string or a number:

When the parameters are of binary string type, and at least one of them is not hexadecimal literal, bit literal or NULL literal, binary string evaluation is performed; otherwise, numerical evaluation is performed and the parameters are converted to unsigned 64-bit integers as needed.
Binary string evaluation produces a binary string with the same length as the parameter. If the lengths of the parameters are not equal, an ER_INVALID_BITWISE_OPERANDS_SIZE error occurs. Numerical calculations produce an unsigned 64-bit integer.

Grammar Structure

> SELECT value1 | value2;

Example

mysql> SELECT 29 | 15;
+-----------+
| 29 | 15 |
+-----------+
| 31 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> select null | 2;
+-------------+
| null | 2 |
+-------------+
| NULL |
+-------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> select null | 2;
+-------------+
| null | 2 |
+-------------+
| NULL |
+-------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

create table t1(a int, b int unsigned);
insert into t1 values (-1, 1), (-5, 5);

mysql> select a | 2, b | 2 from t1;
+--------+--------+
| a | 2 | b | 2 |
+--------+--------+
| -1 | 3 |
| -5 | 7 |
+--------+--------+