Miscellaneous Rules Governing Boolean Type

• Masking-A bitwise logical expression has a Boolean result; each of its bits is the result of one or more logical operations on the corresponding bits of the operands.

• For binary arithmetic operators, and for relational operators:

  • If one operand is Boolean, the operation is performed with no conversion.

  • If both operands are Boolean, the operation is performed as if they were integers.

• No user-specified function can generate a Boolean result, although some (nonstandard) intrinsics can.

• Boolean and logical types differ as follows:

  • Variables, arrays, and functions can be of logical type, but they cannot be Boolean type.

  • There is a LOGICAL statement, but no BOOLEAN statement.

  • A logical variable or constant represents only one value. A Boolean constant can represent as many as 32 values.

  • A logical expression yields one value. A Boolean expression can yield as many as 32 values.

  • Logical entities are invalid in arithmetic, relational, or bitwise logical expressions. Boolean entities are valid in all three.