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Logical disjunction


In logic and mathematics, or is the truth-functional operator of (inclusive) disjunction, also known as alternation; the or of a set of operands is true if and only if one or more of its operands is true. The logical connective that represents this operator is typically written as ∨ or +.

"A or B" is true if A is true, or if B is true, or if both A and B are true.

In logic, or by itself means the inclusive or, distinguished from an exclusive or, which is false when both of its arguments are true, while an "or" is true in that case.

An operand of a disjunction is called a disjunct.

Related concepts in other fields are:

Or is usually expressed with an infix operator: in mathematics and logic, ; in electronics, +; and in most programming languages, |, ||, or or. In Jan Łukasiewicz's prefix notation for logic, the operator is A, for Polish alternatywa (English: alternative).

Logical disjunction is an operation on two logical values, typically the values of two propositions, that has a value of false if and only if both of its operands are false. More generally, a disjunction is a logical formula that can have one or more literals separated only by 'or's. A single literal is often considered to be a degenerate disjunction.

The disjunctive identity is false, which is to say that the or of an expression with false has the same value as the original expression. In keeping with the concept of vacuous truth, when disjunction is defined as an operator or function of arbitrary arity, the empty disjunction (OR-ing over an empty set of operands) is generally defined as false.


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