PHP if statement question (& operator)

Question

I'm using a function I found online. What does the & mean in this conditional?

if ($strength & 8) { $consonants .= '@#$%'; }

$strength is supposed to be a number 0-8. The function is intending to use all $consonants concatenations where $strength < 8. (might explain why the function is not working).

Answer 1

A single & is the bitwise operator and the double && is the logical. (i.e. Bits that are set in both $strength and 8 are set in your example.) It's a lot more complicated than just saying that and it requires an understanding of how binary works.

EDIT: Check out this article for more information on Bitwise operators.

Answer 2

& is a bitwise operator - it's checking to see if the bits that total 8 are set. In this case, 1000