Boolean Logic

Boolean Operators

FlyQL uses three boolean operators to combine conditions:

Operator	Meaning	Example
and	Both conditions must be true	status = 200 and active
or	Either condition can be true	level = 'error' or level = 'critical'
not	Negates the immediately following expression or group	not archived

Combined Negation

not can be combined with and and or:

active and not archived

level = 'error' or not healthy

Operator Precedence

FlyQL follows standard operator precedence — the same rules as SQL, Python, JavaScript, Go, and every mainstream query language:

Precedence	Operator	Binds
1 (tightest)	not	To its immediate operand — the following expression or parenthesized group
2	and	Tighter than or
3 (loosest)	or	Loosest — combines whole AND-chains

Concretely:

a = 1 or b = 2 and c = 3

is parsed as:

a = 1 or (b = 2 and c = 3)

because and binds tighter than or. Same-precedence chains are left-associative, so a = 1 and b = 2 and c = 3 parses as (a = 1 and b = 2) and c = 3.

not binds tightest and applies only to the expression or group that follows it — never the entire preceding expression.

Parenthesized Grouping

Use parentheses to override the default precedence when you want or evaluated before and:

(status >= 400 or level = 'error') and service = 'api'

Without the parentheses, the same source

status >= 400 or level = 'error' and service = 'api'

parses as

status >= 400 or (level = 'error' and service = 'api')

which is a different query. When you want or to dominate, reach for parentheses explicitly.

Nested Grouping

Parentheses can be nested:

(a = 1 or b = 2) and not (c = 3 and d = 4)

Negating Groups

not applies to the entire group:

not (status = 200 and healthy)

This negates the combined condition — true only when either status is not 200 or healthy is false.

Negation

not negates any expression — a truthy check, a comparison, or a group:

not active

not status = 200

not (a = 1 and b = 2)

active and not archived

Double negation cancels out: not not active is equivalent to active.

Examples

status = 200 and service = 'api'

level = 'error' or level = 'critical'

status >= 400 or level = 'error' and service = 'api'

(status >= 400 or level = 'error') and service = 'api'

(status >= 500 and host = 'prod') or (level = 'error' and not service = 'healthcheck')