Operators
An operator is a symbol that applies to certain data (such as numbers or strings) and tells the system what it should do with it. Once the system executes the operator on the data (i.e, once the operator "operates"), you always get some result or value. Common operators include + (addition, as in 1 + 1), - (subtraction, such as 2-1), etc.
A single expression may contain many operators, such as 1 + 2 * 3. The operators are evaluated in a certain sequence -- not as they're written in the line (from left to write). For example, 1 + 2 * 3 evaluates to 7 and not to 9, because the multiplication operator has higher precedence than the addition operator.
Operator Precedence
The following table also shows operator precedence - the topmost operators are the first to be evaluated when the system evaluates an expression.
Description | Syntax | Example | Argument Types | Result Type |
Parenthesis | () |
| Any | Any |
Bitwise NOT operator | ~ |
| Numeric | Numeric |
Logical NOT operator | ! |
| Boolean | Boolean |
Multiplicative operators | * / % |
| Numeric | Numeric |
Additive operators | + - |
| Numeric (or Strings for "+") | Numeric (or String for "+") |
Bit shift and unsigned bit shift operators | >> << >>> |
| Numeric | Numeric |
Relational operators | > < >= <= |
| Numeric | Boolean |
Equality operators and regular expression match operator | == equal != not equal ~= match operator |
| Any (Strings only for the match operator "~=") | Boolean |
Bitwise AND operator | & |
| Numeric | Numeric |
Bitwise XOR operator | ^ |
| Numeric | Numeric |
Bitwise OR operator | | |
| Numeric | Numeric |
Logical AND operator | && |
| Boolean | Boolean |
Logical OR operator | || |
| Boolean | Boolean |
Conditional operator | ? : |
| Boolean for first argument, any type for other arguments | Any |
Parenthesis
Expressions may also include parenthesis that change operators precedence.
 | Example:
but
|
Conditional Operator
The conditional operator, ?:, can be used to conditionally evaluate expressions. It has three arguments. The first argument should evaluate to a Boolean value. If it evaluates to TRUE, the operator result is the second argument. If the first argument is FALSE, the operator result is the third argument.
condition ? value_if_true : value_if_false
| Example:
Resolves to the String, "Yes". |
Regular Expression Match Operator
Both arguments must be strings, or can be cast as strings ( such as float and integer). Returns a Boolean value.
If the regular expression defined by the second argument matches exactly against the first argument, the operation returns TRUE.
If there is no match, or a partial match, the operation evaluates to FALSE.
Examples:
Example | Evaluation Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
| Note that the “\” character must be escaped in the regular expression string. |
|
| Although a partial match was found, |
|
| There are two matches for this regular expression in the first argument. This evaluates to |
|
| First argument is evaluated as Float, and then cast to String to produce |
|
| Mathematical operations can be performed in both arguments. If the results can be cast to string they will be evaluated as a regular expression. |
|
| The second argument evaluates as |
String Concatenation
If at least one argument of an additive operator is a String, the second argument is converted to its string representation. In this case the evaluation result is the result of the concatenation of these strings.
| Example:
resolves to String |
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