The order in which SYSTEM 2000 processes conditions
can affect which data records are selected. SYSTEM 2000 processes
conditions that have operators in the following order: AT, HAS, NOT,
AND, OR.
When conditions are
joined by the same operator, SYSTEM 2000 first processes KEY conditions
(conditions that are indexed) from right-to-left, then NON-KEY conditions
(ones not indexed) from right-to-left.
You can alter the processing
order by changing the order of the conditions and by enclosing conditions
in parenthesis. Conditions enclosed in parenthesis are processed first.
Because the software processes the AND operator before the OR operator, in order to
access the names of employees who have an MBA degree and either a major or minor in
Marketing, use the following where-clause:
where degree=mba &
(major field=marketing | minor field=marketing)
The following where-clause would also result in SYSTEM 2000 selecting the names of
employees who have a minor
in Marketing and degrees other than MBAs.
where degree=mba &
major field=marketing | minor field=marketing