---
id: basic-filters
title: Basic filters
---

## Operators

### Unary operators

The following unary operators are supported:
`!`, `+`, `-`

Usage example:

`-(.user.birth.year - 1990)`

### Binary operators

The following binary operators are supported:
`+`, `-`, `/`, `*`, `+`, `<`, `>`, `%`, `<=`, `>=`, `==`, `!=`, `||`, `&&`

Usage example:

`3 + 1 == 4 * 1`

The following Python-style operators are also available as an alternative:

`or`, `and`

### Ternary operator (conditional)

The ternary (conditional) operator is the only emuto operator that takes three
operands. The ternary operator is the equivalent of the if statement in other
languages.

```
"Foo" if 3 < 4 else "Bar"  // "Foo"
```

```
3.14 if true == false else [42]  // [42]
```

## Spread operator

The spread operator `...` allows an iterable (like an array or string) to be
expanded where zero or more elements are expected:

```
[1, 2, ...[3, 4], 5]
```

## Identity `$`

Takes an input and returns it unchanged.

## Property access `.foo`, `.foo.bar`

Retrieves a certain property of the input.

`.foo.bar` is equivalent to `.foo | .bar`

Property access can be made optional using a `?`:

`$?.foo?.bar`

The effect of this is that when the left hand side of `?.` is `undefined` or
`null`, no error will be thrown. Instead, `null` will be returned.

This code does not produce an error:

```
{"foo": 4}?.bar?.foo
```

## Projection `$[3]`, `$[0, -1]`, `$["foo", "bar"]`

Retrieve a single element from an object or array, or retrieve a list of
elements.

When the projection has a single element (e. g. `$["name"]`) that property is
returned.

In any other case, a list of each requested element is returned.

Just like with property access, optional chaining can be used with projection
too. In this example, no error is produced. Instead, a `null` is returned.

```
null ?[3, 4]
```