what does this do ?

Anon

In a function what is the use of a pipe symbol like this ? what is it used for ? any ideas ?

$okname = validateString($name, VALIDATE_NULL | VALIDATE_ILLEGAL_CHARS | VALIDATE_BANNED_WORDS);

thanks in advance

Anon

its a bitwise OR

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.bitwise.php

Its use to "add" two binary number representations together.

Anon

So if the value of the constants are 1,2,4 respectively,
what actually is being passed to the function validateString ?

$okname = validateString($name, VALIDATE_NULL | VALIDATE_ILLEGAL_CHARS | VALIDATE_BANNED_WORDS);

Anon

OK in binary

1 = 0001
2 = 0010
4 = 0100

The first (from the end) digit is the "ones", second digit is "twos" third is "fours" and the forth digit is "eights" (similar to base ten system we use all the time where the first from the end is ones, tens, hundreds etc)

SO the OR bit turns on (makes it a 1) where ever there is already a 1

0001

or 0010

= 0011 == a one in the ones, twos place makes this a 2 + 1 = 3

now, to add that to the third number

0011

or 0100

= 0111 == a one in the one, twos, fours place makes this 4 + 2 + 1 = 7

So the answer to your question is 7

Anon

Thanks, Nola for the explanation.

it was quite handy info...

Thank you.
Dino.