Question

In the lectures the professor says Booleans (and, or) are a type of data. Why aren't they considered operations?

Answer 1

Boolean is a primitive data type. Examples of Boolean data: True, False.
Integer is also a primitive data type. Examples of Integer data: 1, 2, 3, ...

You perform operations on data. Examples of Integer operators: +, -, Examples of Boolean operators: and, or, and not.

Here is a very simple program that uses Boolean data and operators:

a = False
b = True

print (a and b)
print (a or b)
print (not a)

Answer 2

Continuing on what the last person said, a boolean is a type because it is actually a variable that takes up a space in memory. It can be called, and dereferenced ect.

However, booleans dont necessarily have to be declared either.

If(a==b) is also an example of a boolean. If you were to actually print this program

a = 0
b = 0
print(a==b)

You would get a console response of True.

Answer 3

Now and or and not depends on which version of the operators you are using. Bitwise and/or will return 0 or 1 depending on the bit thats being compared to it.

10000101
11100001 and
---------
10000001

Now there are the abstract versions of and and or that will compare if either are true.

If((a==1 and b==5) or c == 10) < again a comparison of boolean values.

do code

If(a is not 5)
do other code

ect ect