Boolean Functions and Operators

type

bool

bool

A boolean type with possible values of true and false.

EdgeQL has case-insensitive keywords and that includes the boolean literals:

db>

select (True, true, TRUE);

{(true, true, true)}

db>

select (False, false, FALSE);

{(false, false, false)}

A boolean value may arise as a result of a logical or comparison operations as well as in and not in:

db>

select true and 2 < 3;

{true}

db>

select '!' IN {'hello', 'world'};

{false}

It is also possible to cast between bool, str, and json:

db>

select <json>true;

{'true'}

db>

select <bool>'True';

{true}

Filter clauses must always evaluate to a boolean:

select User
filter .name ilike 'alice';

operator

bool or bool

bool or bool -> bool

Logical disjunction.

db>

select false or true;

{true}

operator

bool and bool

bool and bool -> bool

Logical conjunction.

db>

select false and true;

{false}

operator

not bool

not bool -> bool

Logical negation.

db>

select not false;

{true}

The and and or operators are commutative.

The truth tables are as follows:

It is important to understand the difference between using and/or vs all()/any(). This difference is in how they handle {}. Both and and or operators apply to the cross-product of their operands. Thus if any of the operands are {}, the result is also {} for and and or.

The all() and any() are generalized to apply to sets of values, including {}. Thus they have the following truth table:

Since all() and any() apply to sets as a whole, missing values (represented by {}) are just that - missing. They don’t affect the overall result.

To understand the last line in the above truth table it’s useful to remember that all({a, b}) = all(a) and all(b) and any({a, b}) = any(a) or any(b).

For more customized handling of {} the ?? should be used.