Operator precedence

The operator precedence in FQL is listed below from lowest to highest. This order follows the FQL grammar; do not assume unary and comparison operators have the same relative order as another language.

=, +=, -=, *=, /= assignment and compound assignment
? : ternary operator
?? none-coalescing operator
|| logical or
&& logical and
!, +, - logical negation, unary plus, unary minus
like, not like pattern matching
in, not in containment
all, any, none array comparison operators
==, !=, <, <=, >=, > comparison operators
=~, !~ regular expression matching
+, - addition, subtraction
*, /, % multiplication, division, modulus
.. range and primary expressions
() function call
?. optional chaining
. member access
[] indexed value access

Operators higher in this list bind more tightly. For example, multiplication is evaluated before addition, logical and before logical or, and comparisons before unary and logical operators.

example.fql Ferret v2

query.fql

FQL

// Multiplication binds tighter than addition: // interpreted as 2 + (3 * 4), not (2 + 3) * 4 return 2 + 3 * 4

example.fql Ferret v2

query.fql

FQL

// AND binds tighter than OR: // interpreted as false || (true && true) return false || true && true

example.fql

read-only

let cached = none let fetched = none let active = true let nickname = none // OR binds tighter than NONE coalescing: // interpreted as (cached OR fetched) ?? "fallback" // NONE coalescing binds tighter than the ternary operator: // interpreted as active ? (nickname ?? "Anonymous") : "Inactive" return { cached: cached or fetched ?? "fallback", status: active ? nickname ?? "Anonymous" : "Inactive" }

Using parentheses

Parentheses ( and ) group expressions. Use them when the intended grouping differs from the precedence rules. Most binary operators associate to the left; ?? associates to the right, so a ?? b ?? c means a ?? (b ?? c).

example.fql Ferret v2

query.fql

FQL

return (2 + 3) * 4

example.fql Ferret v2

query.fql

FQL

let price = 120 let discount = 0.1 let tax = 0.2 // Without parentheses: discount * tax is evaluated first // With parentheses: subtraction happens before multiplication return price * (1 - discount) * (1 + tax)

The formatter removes grouping that does not affect syntax or semantics. For example, it writes 1 + (2 * 3) as 1 + 2 * 3, but keeps (1 + 2) * 3, a - (b - c), and (a ?? b) ?? c. It also keeps parentheses required by grammar boundaries, recovery-tail ownership, comments, or lexical safety such as -(-value).

Next steps

Learn Operators Compare, combine, and transform values with FQL's operators. Learn none-Coalescing Operator Select a fallback only when a value is none while preserving other falsy values. Learn Expressions Build values from literals, operators, and function calls. Learn Arithmetic Operators Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, modulus, and type conversion rules.