Performs a bitwise AND on two or more numeric values and returns the result.

Vals is a list if variants, which are converted to Long before they are used. If one or more of them cannot be converted to a Long value, an error occurs.

The return value is a number with only the bits set that are set in Val1 and in all the other value arguments. If the current data value is NULL, Val1 is 0 and the return value is 0. If no other arguments are supplied, the return value is Val1.

This function is similar to using And as a bitwise operator in Visual Basic.

BitAnd is useful for testing whether certain bits have been set. For example, some properties store a numeric value in which the bits are used to record true or false values that represent whether various flags have been set. A type definition is typically used to define the various flags. For example, the Element.Flag property in the MDM is used to record whether a category is one or more of various special category types, such as Other Specify, Don't know, or Exclusive (which means that the category is single-choice when it is used in a multiple response question). The values are defined in the CategoryFlagConstants type definition and because the Flag is used as a bit field, it can store more than one “value”.

The following mrScriptBasic code snippet loops through a variable's categories and uses the BitAnd function to test each one to see whether it is defined as exclusive:

For an example of using BitAnd in combination with other bit functions, see BitOr and BitNot. For an example of using BitAnd when cleaning data in a DataManagementScript (DMS) file, see Example 4: Cleaning other question types.