YCQL operators

An expression with operators is a compound expression that combines multiple expressions using built-in operators. The following sections discuss the YCQL operators in YugabyteDB.

Null operators

EXISTS and NOT EXISTS can only be used in the IF clause.

Unary operators

Unary - and + can only be used with constant expressions such as -77.

Binary operators

• The first argument of comparison operators must be a column. For example, column_name = 7.
• Comparing NULL with others always yields a false value. Operator ISNULL or IS NULL must be used when comparing with NULL.
• When + and - are applied to a NULL argument of COUNTER data type, the NULL expression is replaced with a zero value before the computation. When these operators are applied to a NULL expression of all other numeric data types, the computed value is always NULL.
• Operator + either prepends or appends a value to a LIST while operator - removes elements from LIST.
• Operator + inserts new distinct elements to a MAP or SET while operator - removes elements from them.