VB.NET Operators - MSDN Documentation

Visual Basic Operators

Operators are symbols that perform operations on one or more values (operands). Visual Basic supports a wide range of operators to perform arithmetic, comparison, logical, bitwise, assignment, and other operations.

Arithmetic Operators

Used for mathematical calculations.

Operator	Description	Example
`+`	Addition	`Dim sum As Integer = 5 + 3 ' sum will be 8`
`-`	Subtraction	`Dim diff As Integer = 10 - 4 ' diff will be 6`
`*`	Multiplication	`Dim product As Integer = 6 * 7 ' product will be 42`
`/`	Division (returns a floating-point number)	`Dim quotient As Double = 10.0 / 4.0 ' quotient will be 2.5`
`\`	Integer Division (returns the integer part of the division)	`Dim intQuotient As Integer = 10 \ 4 ' intQuotient will be 2`
`Mod`	Modulus (returns the remainder of a division)	`Dim remainder As Integer = 10 Mod 4 ' remainder will be 2`
`^`	Exponentiation	`Dim power As Double = 2.0 ^ 3.0 ' power will be 8.0`

Comparison Operators

Used to compare two values. They return a Boolean value (True or False).

Operator	Description	Example
`=`	Equal to	`If x = y Then ...`
`<>`	Not equal to	`If x <> y Then ...`
`<`	Less than	`If x < y Then ...`
`>`	Greater than	`If x > y Then ...`
`<=`	Less than or equal to	`If x <= y Then ...`
`>=`	Greater than or equal to	`If x >= y Then ...`
`Is`	Compares two reference types for equality (are they the same object?)	`If obj1 Is obj2 Then ...`
`IsNot`	Compares two reference types for inequality	`If obj1 IsNot obj2 Then ...`
`Like`	Compares a string against a pattern	`If text Like "A*" Then ...`

Logical and Bitwise Operators

Used to combine Boolean expressions or to perform bitwise operations on integers.

Operator	Description	Example
`And`	Logical AND (evaluates both operands)	`If x > 0 And y > 0 Then ...`
`Or`	Logical OR (evaluates both operands)	`If x > 0 Or y > 0 Then ...`
`Xor`	Logical XOR (evaluates both operands)	`If x > 0 Xor y > 0 Then ...`
`Not`	Logical NOT	`If Not x > 0 Then ...`
`AndAlso`	Short-circuiting Logical AND (evaluates right operand only if left is True)	`If x > 0 AndAlso y > 0 Then ...`
`OrElse`	Short-circuiting Logical OR (evaluates right operand only if left is False)	`If x > 0 OrElse y > 0 Then ...`
`&`	Bitwise AND	`Dim result As Integer = 5 & 3 ' result will be 1 (binary 0101 & 0011 = 0001)`
`\|`	Bitwise OR	`Dim result As Integer = 5 \| 3 ' result will be 7 (binary 0101 \| 0011 = 0111)`
`^`	Bitwise XOR	`Dim result As Integer = 5 ^ 3 ' result will be 6 (binary 0101 ^ 0011 = 0110)`
`~`	Bitwise NOT (complement)	`Dim result As Integer = ~5 ' result will be -6 (for a 32-bit integer)`
`<<`	Bitwise Left Shift	`Dim result As Integer = 5 << 1 ' result will be 10`
`>>`	Bitwise Right Shift	`Dim result As Integer = 10 >> 1 ' result will be 5`

Assignment Operators

Used to assign a value to a variable.

Operator	Description	Example
`=`	Assignment	`x = 10`
`+=`	Add and assign	`x += 5 ' Equivalent to x = x + 5`
`-=`	Subtract and assign	`x -= 3 ' Equivalent to x = x - 3`
`*=`	Multiply and assign	`x = 2 ' Equivalent to x = x 2`
`/=`	Divide and assign	`x /= 4 ' Equivalent to x = x / 4`
`\=`	Integer divide and assign	`x \= 3 ' Equivalent to x = x \ 3`
`&=`	Concatenate and assign (for strings)	`str1 &= str2 ' Equivalent to str1 = str1 & str2`
`&&=`	Bitwise AND and assign	`x &&= y ' Equivalent to x = x & y`
`\|=`	Bitwise OR and assign	`x \|= y ' Equivalent to x = x \| y`
`^=`	Bitwise XOR and assign	`x ^= y ' Equivalent to x = x ^ y`
`<<=`	Bitwise left shift and assign	`x <<= 2 ' Equivalent to x = x << 2`
`>>=`	Bitwise right shift and assign	`x >>= 1 ' Equivalent to x = x >> 1`

Other Operators

Includes operators for string concatenation, object comparison, type checking, and more.

Concatenation Operator: & - Joins two strings.
String Interpolation: $ - Allows embedding expressions within string literals. Dim name As String = "World"; Dim message As String = $"Hello, {name}!"
Range Operator: To - Used in For...Next loops.
Member Access Operator: . - Used to access members of a class or structure.
Address-Of Operator: AddressOf - Returns a delegate pointing to a procedure.
GetType Operator: GetType - Returns the Type object of a specified type or variable.
TypeOf...Is Operator: TypeOf...Is - Determines if an object is compatible with a given data type.
Function Member Operator: Function() - Used for anonymous methods and lambda expressions.

Operator Precedence

Operators are evaluated in a specific order. Operators with higher precedence are evaluated before operators with lower precedence. You can use parentheses () to override the default precedence.

For a detailed table of operator precedence, please refer to the official VB.NET operator precedence chart.