Operators

Motoko provides various operators for working with numbers, text, and boolean values. They can be categorized as follows:

Category	Description	Examples
Arithmetic	Math operations on numbers	+, -, *, /, %, **
Bitwise	Operations on individual bits	&, |, ^, <<, >>, <<>, <>>
Text	Text concatenation	#
Logical	Logical/boolean operations	not, and, or
Ordered	Comparing values	==, !=, <, >

Note

Bitwise operators can only be used with bounded types, such as Int8, Nat8.

Short-circuit evaluation

In Motoko, the logical operators and and or use short-circuit evaluation:

• and evaluates the second operand only if the first is true.
• or evaluates the second operand only if the first is false.

This avoids unnecessary computation and potential side effects.

Short circuit and

If the first operand is false, the second is not evaluated.

let x = false;

if (x and someOtherExp) {
  Debug.print("Unreachable code executed! something is wrong!"); // This should never be printed.
};

Short circuit or

If the first operand is true, the second is not evaluated.

let y = true;

if (y or someOtherExp) {
  Debug.print("This will be printed");
};

Unary operators

Operator	Description
-	Numeric negation
+	Numeric identity
^	Bitwise negation

Relational operators

Relational operators compare two values and return true or false.

Operator	Description	Example
==	Equals	a == b
!=	Not equals	a != b
<	Less than	a < b
>	Greater than	a > b
<=	Less than or equal	a <= b
>=	Greater than or equal	a >= b

Numeric binary operators

Binary operators combine two numbers to produce a result.

Operator	Description	Example
+	Addition	a + b
-	Subtraction	a - b
*	Multiplication	a * b
/	Division (integer division)	a / b
%	Modulus (remainder)	a % b
**	Exponentiation	a ** b

Caution

Division (/) on integers truncates decimals. For floating-point division, use Float.fromInt():

let result = Float.fromInt(10) / Float.fromInt(3);

Bitwise operators

Bitwise operators manipulate numbers at the binary level.

Operator	Description	Example
&	Bitwise AND	a & b
|	Bitwise OR	a | b
^	Bitwise XOR	a ^ b
<<	Shift left	a << b
>>	Shift right (must be preceded by a whitespace)	a >> b
<<>	Rotate left (circular shift)	a <<> b
<>	Rotate right (circular shift)	a <> b

Note

Bitwise operators can only be used with bounded types. eg: Int8, Nat8.

Wrapping operators

Bounded integers trap on overflow, but wrapping versions allow overflow behavior.

Operator	Description	Example
+%	Addition with wrap-around	a +% b
-%	Subtraction with wrap-around	a -% b
*%	Multiplication with wrap-around	a *% b
**%	Exponentiation with wrap-around	a **% b

Text operators

Operator	Description	Example
#	Concatenates two Text values	a # b

Assignment operators

Assignment operators modify variables in place. Both mutable variables declared with var and elements of mutable arrays can be assigned new values.

Operator	Description	Examples
:=	Assign a value	a := b
+=	Add and assign	a += b
-=	Subtract and assign	a -= b
*=	Multiply and assign	a *= b
/=	Divide and assign	a /= b
#=	Concatenate and assign (for Text)	a #= b

For example:

var done = false; done := true;

let a = [var 1, 2];
a[0] += a[1];

Operator precedence

Operators follow precedence rules, meaning that, in the absence of explicit parentheses, some operators are evaluated before others.

1. Unary operators (-, !, ^)
2. Exponentiation (**, **%)
3. Multiplication & division (*, /, %, *%)
4. Addition & subtraction (+, -, +%, -%)
5. Bitwise operators (&, |, ^)
6. Comparison operators (==, !=, <, >, <=, >=)
7. Assignment operators (:=, +=, -=, etc.)

For example:

let result = 10 + 5 * 2; // result = 20

Use parentheses to enforce a different order.

let result = (10 + 5) * 2; // result = 30

Pipes

Pipes (|>) chain together function calls in a readable way. Instead of nesting function calls, pipes pass the result of one expression as an argument to the next function. The value of the left side of the pipe is referenced on the right side using an underscore (_).

func double(n : Int) : Int { n * 2 };
func increment(n : Int) : Int { n + 1 };

let result = 5 |> double(_) |> increment(_); // (5 * 2) + 1 = 11