Boolean not working as expected

[drumanart56]

Hello
In my default script I set “pause” as boolean:
pause = true;

then on mouseclick:
pause = ~pause;

the console.log shows
1 if true or -2 if false.
the initial boolean seems to be treated like e signed integer.

Thanks Martin

[Hamzah_Al_Ani]

Hey @drumanart56,
Wick Editor uses JavaScript. This type of syntax doesn’t work in JavaScript, only in other languages like MatLab.

@drumanart56

pause = ~pause;

In MatLab (or a language that uses a tilde as a NOT) this would return 0 for false.

The tilde (~) in JavaScript, however, acts as a “Bitwise NOT.”

What's a bitwise NOT?

Let’s say you wrote
~1
In binary, 1 is equal to

0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001

When you add a tilde in front, all the bits are “flipped.”

1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1110

And now you have -2.
I also think this only works with numbers, not strings, I tried it in the inspector

You might be asking, “so what’s this tilde even useful for??”
If you want me to be honest, I haven’t ever ever used the tilde before myself (not in JavaScript at least, I have in other languages), I only learned about this “bitwise NOT” now on Stack Overflow so I don’t really know
But I’m sure it has its uses, maybe with writing number codes or such.

---

If you want to learn more about it and how it works, as well as other JavaScript operators, check out this link.

Bitwise NOT (~) - JavaScript | MDN

---

The NOT operator in JavaScript isn’t a tilde, but rather a “!” (an exclamation mark or factorial symbol).

@drumanart56

pause = true;

When creating a new variable in JavaScript, you should also use “var” in front of the variable (or “const” if it’s a “constant” variable).

Here’s your code rewritten:

var pause = true; // pause = true;
pause = !pause; // pause = ~pause;
console.log(pause); // expected: false

[drumanart56]

thanks for the helpful reply.
Martin