Either You Or It

Question

On the left, I am "you".
On the right, I am "it".
On the forward, I am either "you" or "it".
What am I?

Subtle hint:

I myself is always on the left.

Moderate hint:

There are two kinds of "it".

Decisive hint:

And

Answer 1

Ok, second attempt. You are a:

reference

On the left, I am "you".

Lvalue references refer to a live object, hence "you".

On the right, I am "it".

Rvalue references refer to a temporary object, hence "it".

On the forward, I am either "you" or "it".

Forwarding references can either be lvalue references or rvalue references.

Hints:

Hint 1:

I myself is always on the left.
References themselves are always lvalues.

Hint 2:

There are two kinds of "it".
Rvalues are further classified as prvalues or xvalues.

Hint 3:

And
References are declared like type& (lvalue reference), and type&& (rvalue reference).

Answer 2

I think you are

a boolean taking a value through the |= operator (in C++/Java)

As an example:

 boolean you = ...;
 boolean it = ...;
 you |= it; // you, depending on the values of you and it, is either you or it
 

On the left, I am "you".

you |= it;

On the right, I am "it".

you |= it;

Forwardly, I am either "you" or "it".

In C++/Java, the |= operator returns the value that was assigned, in this case you | it, i.e., you or it

Answer 3

Are you

std::conditional?

Still trying to work out the hints.

Extra:

You said that C++ was the correct language in the comments under another answer.

_{[note: this answer has been through many changes, please see the edit history to reveal all the incorrect guesses that I made]}

Answer 4

Are you

a Boolean set by a conditional statement?

Example:

int a = 7;
bool you = false; // set the boolean value to false
you = (a > 5); // “you” will be equal either to itself (still) or to the result of the comparison (the “it”)

Answer 5

Maybe you are

a string (in an if-else or other conditional statement)

First of all,

"you" and "it" are in quotes

On the left, I am "you".

if(stringName === "you") { something happens }

On the right, I am "it".

else if(stringName === "it") { something else happens }

On the forward, I am either "you" or "it".

without the if-else statement (or any other conditional statement) the string could either be "you" or "it" and the action will still take place.

Hint

Declared as "you":
String stringName = "you";

Answer 6

Are you?

A varying iterator

On the left, I am "you".
On the right, I am "it".
On the forward, I am either "you" or "it".

A forward iterator between two fixed iterators begin() and end() is either pointing to an element in the range (which we can refer to as being of the type "you" as it is pointing to an object and calling it out -- imagine the pointer as someone literally pointing their finger and yelling "You!", "You!", "You!") or points to nothing (more specifically points to something outside the range i.e. points to nothing in particular) in which case it is simply an iterator (it). When performing forward iteration (from left to right), the varying iterator goes: you-you-...-you-it

Answer 7

You are

Condition

On the left, I am "you".

A variable declared by you.

On the right, I am "it".

A value that has something to do with the variable

On the forward, I am either "you" or "it".

you dont need to state condition when you use a function

Answer 8

Are you an

Iterator statement like

 this->it = *it;

Let's analyse this solution. On the left, I am "you". On the left of the arrow this references the current class (or you). On the right, I am "it". On the right of the arrow, it is the iterator variable. On the forward, I am either "you" or "it". By forward I am guessing you mean the forward iterator (or perhaps the forward arrow). Hint 1: I myself is always on the left. this is always on the left. Hint 2: There are two kinds of "it". One is it the other is *it. Hint 3: And. Not sure about this one... Or perhaps it is

this = this->it;