How deeply does Elixir in Action, Third Edition cover truthiness?

Defines falsy values and operator return behavior, then stops short of broader language-reference detail.

Truthiness

As explained in Elixir in Action, Third Edition

A truthy value is a value that Elixir treats as true in truthiness evaluation.

Truthiness determines how Elixir evaluates a value in short-circuit expressions. Only false and nil are falsy; every other value is truthy. section 2.4.2 section 2.5

Use the short-circuit operators according to the value they return:

|| returns the first truthy expression, or the final expression when all expressions are falsy. section 2.4.2 section 2.5
&& returns the first falsy expression; otherwise it returns the second expression. section 2.4.2 section 2.5
! returns false for a truthy value and true for a falsy value. section 2.5

Fallbacks and guarded work

Chain fallback sources with read_cached() || read_from_disk() || read_from_database(). Guard dependent work with connection && read_data(connection); the second expression is skipped when connection is nil or false. section 2.4.2 section 2.4.2

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Compare representative short-circuit expressions and their returned values. section 2.4.2

How Elixir in Action, Third Edition covers it

Cover of Elixir in Action, Third Edition

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Essential TypeScript 5, Third EditionA falsy value is a JavaScript value that is coerced to false in a boolean context.
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Modern C, Third EditionA truth value is the logical interpretation of a C value as true or false in a condition or logical operation.

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Related concepts

short-circuit evaluationused by · Short-circuit evaluation is an evaluation strategy that skips remaining operands or processing when the result is already determined.
logical AND operatorproduced by · A logical AND operator is a Boolean conjunction that produces true exactly when all operands have true truth values.
boolean operationproduced by · A Boolean operation combines or transforms truth-valued inputs according to logical rules to produce a truth-valued result.
logical ORused by · Logical OR is a Boolean disjunction that evaluates to true when at least one operand or condition is true.
referenceused by · A reference is an indirect value or relationship that identifies or provides access to another value, object, resource, or source.
nullish coalescing operatorcontrasts with · A conditional operator that yields its left operand unless it is null or an equivalent absent value, in which case it yields a fallback right operand.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Elixir in Action, Third Edition. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.