Operators in Visual Basic .Net

An operator is a symbol that indicates which operations are performed, to the compiler. An operation has basically two parts: operator and operands.

For example in the given operation,

a + b

The variables a and b are called operands and the symbol + is called the operator.

In Visual Basic .Net there are mainly six type of operators they are given below.

  • Arithmetic Operators
  • Comparison Operators
  • Logical/ Bitwise Operators
  • Bit Shift Operators
  • Assignment Operators
  • Miscellaneous Operators

Arithmetic Operators

The arithmetic operators supported by VB.Net are seven in number.

Addition: 

  • Performs the basic addition of the mathematics.
  • Uses the + symbol.
  • Eg: a + b

Subtraction:

  • Performs the basic subtraction of mathematics.
  • Uses the – symbol.
  • Eg: a – b

Multiplication:

  • Performs the basic multiplication of the mathematics.
  • Uses the * symbol.
  • Eg: a * b

Division:

  • Performs the basic division of the mathematics.
  • Uses the / symbol.
  • Eg: a / b

Integer Division:

  • Performs the integer division which avoids the decimal point in the result.
  • Uses the \ symbol.
  • Eg: a\b

Modular:

  • Used to find the modulus of a division operation.
  • Uses the keyword Mod or the symbol %.
  • Eg: a Mod b or a % b

Exponentiation:

  • Used to find the power of an operand by another operand.
  • Uses the symbol ^.
  • Eg: 2^3 calculates the 3rd power of 2, which is 8.

Relational Operators

The VB.Net supports the following relational operators.

  • Less than: uses the symbol <, example: a<b
  • Less than or equal to: uses the symbol <=, example: a<=b
  • Greater than: uses the symbol >, example: a>b
  • Greater than or equal to: uses the symbol >=, example: a>=b
  • Equal To: uses the symbol ==, example: a==b
  • Not Equal To: uses the symbol <>, example: a<>b
  • Is: compares the references.
  • IsNot: compares the references, but the results will be opposite of Is.
  • Like: It compares a string against a pattern.

Logical/Bitwise Operators (Boolean Operators)

These are the logical operators supported by Visual Basic .Net.

  • And: (A And B) is False.
  • Or: (A Or B) is True.
  • Note: Not(A And B) is True.
  • Xor: A Xor B is True.
  • AndAlso: (A AndAlso B) is False.
  • OrElse: (A OrElse B) is True.

Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators are used to works with bits of a binary number.

  • Not: bitwise negation
  • Xor: bitwise exclusive or
  • And: bitwise and
  • Or: bitwise or

Assignment Operators

The VB.Net supports the following assignment operators.

  • ( = ) Simple assignment operator
  • ( += ) Add AND assignment operator
  • ( -= ) Subtract AND assignment operator
  • ( *= ) Multiply AND assignment operator
  • ( /= ) Divide AND assignment operator
  • ( \= ) Divide AND assignment operator
  • ( ^= ) Exponentiation and assignment operator
  • ( <<= ) Left shift AND assignment operator
  • ( >>= ) Right shift AND assignment operator
  • ( &= ) Concatenates a String expression to a String variable

Miscellaneous Operators

The following are the Visual Basic miscellaneous operators.

  • AddressOf : Returns the address of a procedure.
  • Await : Is applied to a task in an asynchronous method to suspend the execution of the method until the awaited task completes.
  • GetType : It returns a Type object for the specified type.
  • Function Expression : It declares the parameters and code that define a function lambda expression.
  • If : It uses short-circuit evaluation to conditionally return one of two values.

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