The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

EXPRESSIONS Conditional-Or Operator || 15.24
For &, the result value is true if both operand values are true; otherwise, the
result is false.
For ^, the result value is true if the operand values are different; otherwise,
the result is false.
For |, the result value is false if both operand values are false; otherwise,
the result is true.
15.23 Conditional-And Operator &&
The && operator is like & (§15.22.2), but evaluates its right-hand operand only if
the value of its left-hand operand is true. It is syntactically left-associative (it
groups left-to-right). It is fully associative with respect to both side effects and
result value; that is, for any expressions a, b, and c, evaluation of the expression
((a)&&(b))&&(c) produces the same result, with the same side effects occurring
in the same order, as evaluation of the expression (a)&&((b)&&(c)).
ConditionalAndExpression:
InclusiveOrExpression
ConditionalAndExpression && InclusiveOrExpression
Each operand of && must be of type boolean or Boolean, or a compile-time
error occurs. The type of a conditional-and expression is always boolean.
At run time, the left-hand operand expression is evaluated first; if the result
has type Boolean, it is subjected to unboxing conversion (§5.1.8); if the resulting
value is false, the value of the conditional-and expression is false and the righthand
operand expression is not evaluated. If the value of the left-hand operand is
true, then the right-hand expression is evaluated; if the result has type Boolean,
it is subjected to unboxing conversion (§5.1.8); the resulting value becomes the
value of the conditional-and expression. Thus, && computes the same result as &
on boolean operands. It differs only in that the right-hand operand expression is
evaluated conditionally rather than always.
DRAFT
15.24 Conditional-Or Operator ||
The || operator is like | (§15.22.2), but evaluates its right-hand operand only if
the value of its left-hand operand is false. It is syntactically left-associative (it
groups left-to-right). It is fully associative with respect to both side effects and
result value; that is, for any expressions a, b, and c, evaluation of the expression
((a)||(b))||(c) produces the same result, with the same side effects occurring
in the same order, as evaluation of the expression (a)||((b)||(c)).
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