Programming Operators and Precedence of Calculation

An operator is a mathematical symbol or term used to connect or compare two or more parts of a program or assign a value. The following shows Sesame-supported operators with usage examples:

+	Addition1 Total = Amount + Sales Tax FullName = FirstName + " " + LastName @Msg("Ordering " + @Str(Qty) + " " + Item + "(s)")
-	Subtraction Difference = GrandTotal = EstimatedTotal
*	Multiplication Sales Tax = Amount = .072
/	Division Cost = Amount / Quantity
=	Equal to If Priority = "A" Then ShipDate = OrderDate + 1
<	Less than If ShipDate < OrderDate Then WriteLn("Whoops!")
>	Greater than If (@Year(@Date)) - @Year(BirthDate)) > 16 Then Class = "Adult"
<=	Less than or equal to If BirthDate <= @D(1999/12/31) Then WriteLn("Child of the 20th Century (probably)")
>=	Greater than or equal to If Qty >= 1000 then Price = Price * .95
<>	Not equal to If State <> "PA" Then @Msg("No Sales Tax")
AND	Both comparisons are true If ((@Yr(@Date) - @Yr(BirthDate)) < 17) AND (Gender = "M") Then @Msg("Now behave yourself, laddie")
OR	Either comparison is true If (Total . 1000) OR (Status = "VIP") Then @Msg("Order must be shipped by " + @Str(OrderDate + 1))
NOT	Reverses comparison If NOT @Error Then @Msg(It Worked!")

¹Arithmetically sums values if they are of numeric data type, as assumed in first example (includes Integer, Double, Money, Boolean, Date, Time values). Otherwise, concatenates (combines) values as in second example. Typecasting functions can be used to convert between data types.

Precedence of Calculation in Programming
The following show precedence (the order) of calculation from highest (calculated first) to lowest (calculated last) (operators on the same line have the same precedence – Sesame evaluates them from left to right as they appear in your program). As a matter of good practice, you should use parentheses to control precedence rather than depend on the following order.

• (...) Anything contained in parentheses
• * / Multiplication and division
• + - Addition and subtraction
• <, >, <=, >=, <> Lesser than, greater than, less than or equal to, greater than or equal to, not equal to
• NOT Reverses comparison’s values
• AND OR Both comparisons true, either comparison true