SQL AND / OR Order of Operations

When is comes to SQL and a series of AND and OR directives in the WHERE clause, the order of operations can be confusing. I am not sure what the rules are to this, but this is what my personal experience has shown me. Even with no parenthesis, OR clauses create the same effect as adding parentheses. So for instance, the SQL query below:

SELECT
	name
FROM
	tag
WHERE
	1 = 0
AND
	1 = 0
OR
	1 = 1
AND
	1 = 0
AND
	2 = 2
OR
	1 = 1
AND
	2 = 2

... seems to be rewritten to be the same as:

SELECT
	name
FROM
	tag
WHERE
	(
			1 = 0
		AND
			1 = 0
	)
OR
	(
			1 = 1
		AND
			1 = 0
		AND
			2 = 2
	)
OR
	(
			1 = 1
		AND
			2 = 2
	)

Notice that the OR directive seem to just group the other directives (AND) in the where clause. That is why changing the last AND 2 = 2 to AND 2 = 3 will turn the whole WHERE clause to be untrue. So, even though the following looks like it would be true due to the OR 1 = 1 directives:

SELECT
	name
FROM
	tag
WHERE
	1 = 0
AND
	1 = 0
OR
	1 = 1
AND
	1 = 0
AND
	2 = 2

-- Might think this OR directive will make everything true
-- but it does not (see below).
OR
	1 = 1

AND
	2 = 3

... it turns out to be false when you take in the behind-the-scenes parentheses into account:

SELECT
	name
FROM
	tag
WHERE
	(
			1 = 0
		AND
			1 = 0
	)
OR
	(
			1 = 1
		AND
			1 = 0
		AND
			2 = 2
	)

-- This OR directive no longer returns true since you can see
-- that it is not just OR 1 = 1, but in fact, it is an OR'ing
-- of two separate AND directives that do not return true.
OR
	(
			1 = 1
		AND
			2 = 3
	)

So, as far as order of operations go, it's not so much about AND and OR directives in the WHERE statement, but rather, how the behind-the-scenes parentheses will group the non-OR directives. In order for this to be clear, I would suggest always using the parenthesis when using AND and OR statements. Furthermore, even if it is not required, the parenthesis will make it easier for anyone else looking at your code to understand what is going on.

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Reader Comments

unicode Aug 23, 2010 at 10:52 AM

1 Comments

It's simple from the boolean logic point of view. AND is multiplication whereas OR is addition.

AND:
1 AND 1 = 1 <=> 1 * 1 = 1
0 AND 1 = 0 <=> 0 * 1 = 0
etc.

OR:
0 OR 0 = 0 <=> 0 + 0 = 0
0 OR 1 = 1 <=> 0 + 1 = 1
etc.

The only exception is
1 OR 1 = 1 <=> 1 + 1 = 1
but it makes sense because there is no value above 1.

The ordering of operations is the same as the order of simple arithmetic.

Ben Nadel Aug 23, 2010 at 9:05 PM

15,848 Comments

@Unicode,

I'm sorry, but explaining that in terms of mathematical PEMDAS is.... brilliant!! Thanks!

Saggy Jul 29, 2011 at 12:59 PM

1 Comments

Thanks a lot Ben for this article. It cleared my confusion on whether AND operations are performed first or OR when there's no parenthesis. :)

Valeriu Bosneaga Feb 14, 2014 at 9:53 AM

1 Comments

The logic precedence in queries is NOT, AND, OR.
You can read more on http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186992%28v=sql.105%29.aspx

Gary Sep 4, 2014 at 12:13 PM

1 Comments

@Unicode, totally makes sense!
@Ben, awesome article. Simple and powerful as heck.

Oh my chickens, this post is old!

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