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| Greater, or

Greater; logical OR

x|y       |[x;y]
x or y    or[x;y]

Returns the greater of the underlying values of x and y.

q)2|3
3
q)1010b or 1100b  /logical OR with booleans
1110b
q)"sat"|"cow"
"sow"

| is a multithreaded primitive.

Flags

Where x and y are both flags, Greater is logical OR.

Use or for flags

While Greater and or are synonyms, it helps readers to apply or only and wherever flag arguments are expected.

There is no performance implication.

Dictionaries and keyed tables

Where x and y are a pair of dictionaries or keyed tables the result is equivalent to upserting y into x where the values of y exceed those in x.

q)show a:([sym:`ibm`msoft`appl`goog]t:2017.05 2017.09 2015.03 2017.11m)
sym  | t
-----| -------
ibm  | 2017.05
msoft| 2017.09
appl | 2015.03
goog | 2017.11

q)show b:([sym:`msoft`goog`ibm]t:2017.08 2017.12 2016.12m)
sym  | t
-----| -------
msoft| 2017.08
goog | 2017.12
ibm  | 2016.12
q)a|b
sym  | t
-----| -------
ibm  | 2017.05
msoft| 2017.09
appl | 2015.03
goog | 2017.12

Mixed types

Where x and y are of different types the greater of their underlying values is returned as the higher of the two types.

q)98|"a"
"b"

Implicit iteration

Greater and or are atomic functions.

q)(10;20 30)|(2;3 4)
10
20 30

They apply to dictionaries and tables.

q)k:`k xkey update k:`abc`def`ghi from t:flip d:`a`b!(10 -21 3;4 5 -6)

q)d|5
a| 10 5 5
b| 5  5 5

q)d|`b`c!(10 20 30;1000*1 2 3)  / upsert semantics
a| 10   -21  3
b| 10   20   30
c| 1000 2000 3000

q)t|5
a  b
----
10 5
5  5
5  5

q)k|5
k  | a  b
---| ----
abc| 10 5
def| 5  5
ghi| 5  5

Domain and range

    b g x h i j e f c s p m d z n u v t
----------------------------------------
b | b . x h i j e f c . p m d z n u v t
g | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
x | x . x h i j e f c . p m d z n u v t
h | h . h h i j e f c . p m d z n u v t
i | i . i i i j e f c . p m d z n u v t
j | j . j j j j e f c . p m d z n u v t
e | e . e e e e e f c . p m d z n u v t
f | f . f f f f f f c . p m d z n u v t
c | c . c c c c c c c . p m d z n u v t
s | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
p | p . p p p p p p p . p p p p n u v t
m | m . m m m m m m m . p m d . . . . .
d | d . d d d d d d d . p d d z . . . .
z | z . z z z z z z z . p . z z n u v t
n | n . n n n n n n n . n . . n n n n n
u | u . u u u u u u u . u . . u n u v t
v | v . v v v v v v v . v . . v n v v t
t | t . t t t t t t t . t . . t n t t t

Range: bcdefhijmnptuvxz


and, &, Lesser, max, min
Comparison, Logic
Q for Mortals ยง4.5 Greater and Lesser