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Q45907: QuickBASIC’s Hierarchy of Operations

Article: Q45907
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 1.00 1.01 1.02 2.00 2.01 3.00 4.00 4.00b 4.50
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | SR# S890605-156 B_BasicCom B_GWBasicI | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 27-DEC-1989

The following information on "Hierarchy of Operations" was taken from
Pages 45-46 of the "Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.0: BASIC Language
Reference" manual for Versions 4.00 and 4.00b. This information also
applies to the following products:

1. Microsoft GW-BASIC Versions 3.20, 3.22, and 3.23

2. QuickBASIC Versions 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 2.00, 2.01, 3.00, 4.00,
   4.00b, and 4.50

3. Microsoft BASIC Compiler Versions 5.35, 5.36, 6.00, and 6.00b

4. Microsoft BASIC PDS Version 7.00.

The BASIC operators have an order of precedence, that is, when several
operations take place within the same program statement (without being
grouped by parentheses), some operations are executed before others.
Operations are executed in the following order:

1. Arithmetic operations

   a. Exponential (^)

   b. Negation (-)

   c. Multiplication and division (*, /)

   d. Integer division (\)

   e. Modula arithmetic (MOD)

   f. Addition and subtraction (+, -)

2. Relational operations (=, >, <, <>, <=, >=)

3. Logical operations

   a. NOT

   b. AND

   c. OR

   d. XOR

   e. EQV

   f. IMP

An exception to the order of operations listed above occurs when an
expression has adjacent exponentiation and negation operators. In this
case, the negation is done first. For example, the following statement
prints the value .0625 (equivalent to 4^-2), not -16 (equivalent to
-(4^2)):

   PRINT 4 ^ -2

If operators on the same precedence level appear in the same
expression, they are computed from left to right.

For more information on the "Hierarchy of Operations," consult the
BASIC language reference manual for your version of BASIC.

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