---
title: "Operator precedence in formulas"
slug: "operator-precedence-in-formulas"
updated: 2026-04-24T17:18:20Z
published: 2026-04-24T17:18:20Z
canonical: "help.quickbase.com/operator-precedence-in-formulas"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.quickbase.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Operator precedence in formulas

Operators are special symbols like `+` and `*` that act on one or two values to return a new value. Quickbase evaluates operators in a specific order, called operator precedence.

## Operator precedence

Quickbase evaluates certain operators before it acts on others.

For example,

- * has higher precedence than +.
- The expression **3+4*2** evaluates as:
  1. 4*2 = 8
  2. 8+3 = 11

### Types of operators

**Unary operators**

- Act on a single value. See list of [unary operators](https://www.quickbase.com/db/6ewwzuuj?a=q&qid=10).
- Evaluate right to left when there are multiple of the same precedence next to each other

**Binary operators**

- Act on two values. See list of [binary operators](https://www.quickbase.com/db/6ewwzuuj?a=q&qid=11)
- Evaluate left to right when there are multiple of the same precedence next to each other

### Operator precedence table

The following table lists operators from highest precedence to lowest precedence:

| Precedence Level | Operator | Evaluation Order in Expressions |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 (highest) | unary +, unary -, not | Right to left |
| 2 | ^ | Left to right |
| 3 | *, / | Left to right |
| 4 | binary +, binary -, & | Left to right |
| 5 | <, >, <=, >= | Left to right |
| 6 | =, <>, != | Left to right |
| 7 | and | Left to right |
| 8 (lowest) | or | Left to right |

### Manually control operator precedence

Enclose portions of your formula in parentheses to manually control operator precedence.

- Quickbase evaluates operators within parentheses first
- Then uses the resulting calculation when it moves on to the rest of the formula