Quick Reference: Operators

Operators are mathematical and logical words and symbols you can use in an expression. The operators are each described in detail later in this section. For reference, they are listed here by category.

Mathematical Operators

Operator	Behavior
+, plus	addition
\-, minus	subtraction
\*, times, multiplied by	multiplication
/, divided by	division
^	exponentiation (raise to a power)
squared	raise to the second power
to the power of	raise to the power specified
cubed	raise to the third power
%, percent	percent
div	integer division
rem	integer remainder
modulo, mod	mathematical modulo
is a multiple of, is divisible by	test for exact multiple of a number
rounded to	round to a number of decimal places
rounded to nearest	round to the nearest multiple of a value

Comparison Operators

Operator	Behavior
=, is, are, equals, equal to, does equal, are equal, the same	equal
<>, is not, are not, does not equal, is not equal to, isn't, aren't, doesn't equal, isn't equal to	not equal
<, is less than, comes before, is earlier than, is not greater than or equal to	less than
>, is greater than, is more than, comes after, is later than, is past, is not less than or equal to	greater than
<=, is less than or equal to, does not come after, is not greater than, is not later than, is not past, is at most, is no more than	less than or equal to
>=, is greater than or equal to, does not come before, is not less than, is not earlier than, is at least, is no less than	greater than or equal to
between, is between, is not between, comes between, does not come between	whether a value is within a range of values

Logical Operators

Operator	Behavior
and	logical and
and if	short-circuit logical and
or	logical inclusive or
or if	short-circuit logical inclusive or
not	logical negation

Text Operators

Operator	Behavior
&	text string concatenation
&&	text concatenation with space inserted
is in, is contained by, is not in, isn't in	one string contained in another, or value contained in a list
contains, does not contain, doesn't contain	one string contains another, or value contained in a list
is among, is not among, isn't among	one value is present among the chunks, items, keys or values of another
begins with, does not begin with, doesn't begin with	one string begins with another, or list begins with a value or sublist
ends with, does not end with, doesn't end with	one string ends with another, or list ends with a value or sublist

Property List Operators

Operator	Behavior
adding	add properties from one property list to those from another
replacing	add properties from one property list to those from another, overriding duplicates
removing	remove specified properties from a property list
retaining	remove properties from a property list, other than those specified

Date Operators

Operator	Behavior
ago	time prior to now
hence, from now	time later than now

Miscellaneous Operators

Operator	Behavior
( )	grouping
is a	tests for types (number, integer, point, rect, date, logical, color)
there is a	yields true if the specified object or file exists
exists	yields true if the specified object or file exists
is within	tests whether a point or rectangle is within a rectangle
&&&	list concatenation
joined by	converts a list or property list to text
split by	converts text to a list or property list
as	converts a value to a given internal representation
(if ... then ... else ...)	selector expression