*AND, *OR, and *NOT operators

The logical operators *AND and *OR specify the relationship between operands in a logical expression. The logical operator *NOT is used to negate logical variables or constants.

*AND and *OR are the reserved values used to specify the relationship between operands in a logical expression. The ampersand symbol (&) can replace the reserved value *AND, and the vertical bar (|) can replace *OR. The reserved values must be preceded and followed by blanks. The operands in a logical expression consist of relational expressions or logical variables or constants separated by logical operators. The *AND operator indicates that both operands (on either side of the operator) have to be true to produce a true result. The *OR operator indicates that one or the other of its operands must be true to produce a true result.

Note: Using the ampersand symbol or the vertical bar can cause problems because the symbols are not at the same code point for all code pages. To avoid this, use *AND and *OR instead of the symbols.

Use operators other than logical operators in expressions to indicate the actions to perform on the operands in the expression or the relationship between the operands. There are three kinds of operators other than logical operators:

Arithmetic (+, -, *, /)
Character (*CAT, ||, *BCAT, |>, *TCAT, |<)
Relational (*EQ, =, *GT, >, *LT, <, *GE, >=, *LE, <=, *NE, ¬=, *NG, ¬>, *NL, ¬<)

The following are examples of logical expressions:

((&C *LT 1) *AND (&TIME *GT 1430))
(&C *LT 1 *AND &TIME *GT 1430)
((&C < 1) & (&TIME>1430))
((&C< 1) & (&TIME>1430))

In each of these cases, the logical expression consists of three parts: two operands and one operator (*AND or *OR, or their symbols). It is the type of operator (*AND or *OR) that characterizes the expression as logical, not the type of operand. Operands in logical expressions can be logical variables or other expressions, such as relational expressions. (Relational expressions are characterized by &gt, &lt, or = symbols or corresponding reserved values.) For instance, in following example the entire logical expression is enclosed in parentheses, and both operands are relational expressions, also enclosed separately in parentheses:

((&C *LT 1) *AND (&TIME *GT 1430))

As you can see from the second example of logical expressions, the operands need not be enclosed in separate parentheses, but it is recommended for clarity. Parentheses are not needed because *AND and *OR have different priorities. *AND is always considered before *OR. For operators of the same priority, parentheses can be used to control the order in which operations are performed.

A simple relational expression can be written as the condition in a command:

IF (&A=&B) THEN(DO)
              .
              .
              .
              ENDDO

The operands in this relational expression could also be constants.

If you wish to specify more than one condition, you can use a logical expression with relational expressions as operands:

IF ((&A=&B) *AND (&C=&D)) THEN(DO)
                             .
                             .
                             .
                             ENDDO

The series of dependent IF commands cited as an example in Embedded IF commands could be coded:

PGM
DCL &RESP *DEC 1
DCL &A *DEC 1
DCL &B *CHAR 2
IF ((&RESP=1) *AND (&A=5) *AND (&B=NO)) THEN(DO)
                                           .
                                           .
                                           .
                                           ENDDO
CHGVAR &A VALUE(8)
CALLPRC PROC(DAILY)
ENDPGM

Here the logical operators are again used between relational expressions.

Because a logical expression can also have other logical expressions as operands, quite complex logic is possible:

IF (((&A=&B) *OR (&A=&C)) *AND ((&C=1) *OR (&D='0'))) THEN(DO)

In this case, &D is defined as a logical variable.

The result of the evaluation of any relational or logical expression is a '1' or '0' (true or false). The dependent command is processed only if the complete expression is evaluated as true ('1'). The following command is interpreted in these terms:

IF   ((&A = &B) *AND (&C = &D)) THEN(DO)
 
     ((true'1') *AND (not true'0'))
          (not true '0')

The expression is finally evaluated as not true ('0'), and, therefore, the DO is not processed. For an explanation of how this evaluation was reached, see the matrices later in this section.

This same process is used to evaluate a logical expression using logical variables, as in this example:

PGM
DCL &A *LGL
DCL &B *LGL
IF (&A *OR &B) THEN(CALL PGM(PGMA))
.
.
.
ENDPGM

Here the conditional expression is evaluated to see if the value of &A or of &B is equal to '1' (true). If either is true, the whole expression is true, and PGMA is called.

The final evaluation arrived at for all these examples of logical expressions is based on standard matrices comparing two values (referred to here as &A and &B) under an *OR or *AND operator.

Use the following matrix when using *OR with logical variables or constants:

If &A is:: '0' '0' '1' '1'
and &B is:: '0' '1' '0' '1'
the OR expression is:: '0' '1' '1' '1'

In short, for multiple OR operators with logical variables or constants, the expression is false ('0') if all values are false. The expression is true ('1') if any values are true.

PGM
DCL &A *LGL VALUE('0')
DCL &B *LGL VALUE('1')
DCL &C *LGL VALUE('1')
IF (&A *OR &B *OR &C) THEN(CALL PGMA)
.
.
.
ENDPGM

Here the values are not all false; therefore, the expression is true, and PGMA is called.

Use the following matrix when evaluating a logical expression with *AND with logical variables or constants:

If &A is:: '0' '0' '1' '1'
and &B is:: '0' '1' '0' '1'
the ANDed expression is:: '0' '0' '0' '1'

For multiple AND operators with logical variables or constants, the expression is false ('0') when any value is false, and true when they are all true.

PGM
DCL &A *LGL VALUE('0')
DCL &B *LGL VALUE('1')
DCL &C *LGL VALUE('1')
IF (&A *AND &B *AND &C) THEN(CALL PGMA)
.
.
.
ENDPGM

Here the values are not all true; therefore, the expression is false, and PGMA is not called.

These logical operators can only be used within an expression when the operands represent a logical value, as in the preceding examples. It is incorrect to attempt to use OR or AND for variables that are not logical. For instance:

PGM
DCL &A *CHAR 3
DCL &B *CHAR 3
DCL &C *CHAR 3
 
Incorrect:   IF (&A *OR &B *OR &C = YES) THEN...

The correct coding for this would be:

IF ((&A=YES) *OR (&B=YES) *OR (&C=YES)) THEN...

In this case, the ORing occurs between relational expressions.

The logical operator *NOT (or ¬) is used to negate logical variables or constants. Any *NOT operators must be evaluated before the *AND or *OR operators are evaluated. Any values that follow *NOT operators must be evaluated before the logical relationship between the operands is evaluated.

PGM
DCL &A *LGL '1'
DCL &B *LGL '0'
IF (&A *AND *NOT &B) THEN(CALL PGMA)

In this example, the values are all true; therefore, the expression is true, and PGMA is called.

PGM
DCL &A *LGL
DCL &B *CHAR 3 VALUE('ABC')
DCL &C *CHAR 3 VALUE('XYZ')
CHGVAR &A VALUE(&B *EQ &C)
IF (&A) THEN(CALLPRC PROCA)

In this example, the value is false, therefore, PROCA is not called.