Operators

An operator manipulates data items and returns a result. Operators manipulate individual data items called operands or arguments. They are represented by special characters or by keywords. Syntactically, an operator appears before an operand, after an operand, or between two operands.

The OLAP expression syntax has the following types of operators:

Unary Arithmetic
Binary Arithmetic
Concatenation

For conditional operators, go to Conditions.

Unary Arithmetic Operators

A unary operator operates on only one operand.

Unary Operators
Operator	Description
+	Positive value
-	Negative value

Syntax

operator operand

Example

-5 is a negative number.

Binary Arithmetic Operators

A binary operator operates on two operands.

Binary Operators
Operator	Description
+	Add
-	Subtract
*	Multiply
/	Divide

Syntax

operand operator operand

Example

7 * 2 is 14.

Concatenation Operator

The concatenation operator (||) manipulates text expressions.

Syntax

operand || operand

Example

'The date today is: ' || sysdate generates a text string such as The date today is: 23-AUG-06.