Jim,

You are exactly right. It is VFP's optimization of logical expressions that keeps the full logical expression from being evaluated. If you put trackable functions in that all return "unoptimizeable" values you can see that VFP does use the proper precedence.

? f1() or t1() and t2() and f2() or f3() or f4() or ( t1() and ( f1() or t2() ) )

function f1()
? program()
return .f.

function f2()
? program()
return .f.

function f3()
? program()
return .f.

function f4()
? program()
return .f.

function t1()
? program()
return .t.

function t2()
? program()
return .t.


>It is my understanding that precendence mean sthat one orperation will be performed before another at the same level of parens. That would mean that if an OR and a AND appeared at the same parenthetical level the AND would be evaluated first. However, my testing indicates clearly that the expressions are evaluated from left to right regardless of the position of the and or the or.