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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-20T23:31:58+00:00

VHDL allows the following substitutions, presumably because some computers might not support the vertical

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VHDL allows the following substitutions, presumably because some computers might not support the vertical bar (or pipe symbol) (|) or the hash (or pound sign / number sign) (#):

case A|B can be written as case A!B

16#fff# can be written as 16:fff:

Any computer nowadays supports the vertical bar and the hash symbol, so I figured nobody uses these substitutions… Until somebody requested support for the exclamation mark.

My question: is this a lone case or are other people also using the exclamation mark as substitute for the vertical bar? Anybody using the colon?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Data point 1: Not me 🙂

    And I’ve never seen it as far as I recall in any code – nor was I taught it at any point (in fact, this is the first I knew of those substitutions).

    I had a quick look in Ashenden’s Designer’s Guide to VHDL, and the ! alternative is not even mentioned when the | is introduced for case statements.

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