# Parenthesizing conditions
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/parenthesizing-conditions/80000
**Category:** New to Julia
**Created:** [April 25, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/parenthesizing-conditions/80000 "2022-04-25T17:39:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chadagreene](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chadagreene)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/parenthesizing-conditions/80000/1 "2022-04-25T17:39:50Z")
The [Julia Style Guide](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/style-guide/#Don't-parenthesize-conditions) says:
> **Don’t parenthesize conditions** …Write:
>
> ```julia
> if a == b
>
> ```
>
> instead of:
>
> ```julia
> if (a == b)
>
> ```
However, I recently discovered a potentially dangerous characteristic of Julia, which, as far as I know, can only be prevented by parenthesizing conditions. Starting with this simple `or` statement:
```julia
julia> true | false
true
```
Everything is working as expected. However, if we replace `true` and `false` with conditions that return `true` and `false`, respectively, the `or` statement now returns `false`:
```julia
julia> 1==1 | 1==2
false
```
Putting the conditions in parentheses is uglier, but fixes the problem:
```julia
julia> (1==1) | (1==2)
true
```
For comparison, MATLAB returns `true` for all of the above situations. Here’s the MATLAB:
```matlab
>> true | false
ans =
logical
1
>> 1==1 | 1==2
ans =
logical
1
>> (1==1) | (1==2)
ans =
logical
1
```
**My question:** _What’s the appropriate way to deal with conditionals? Ignore the Style Guide, or is there some other way to write conditionals that’s less prone to error or misinterpretation?_
---
### Author:  [@goerch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/goerch)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/parenthesizing-conditions/80000/2 "2022-04-25T17:43:41Z")
> [@chadagreene](#):
>
> `1==1 | 1==2`
Using logical or instead of bit wise or ‘fixes’ it, too:
```julia
julia> 1==1 || 1==2
true
```
But you got a point: a potential trap.
---
### Author:  [@StevenWhitaker](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StevenWhitaker)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/parenthesizing-conditions/80000/3 "2022-04-25T17:54:17Z")
> [@chadagreene](#):
>
> ```julia
> julia> (1==1) | (1==2)
>
> ```
If this were the condition it would be written as
```julia
if (1==1) | (1==2)
```
instead of
```julia
if ((1==1) | (1==2))
```
so I don’t see the discrepancy. What you highlighted is a matter of order of operations.
---
### Author:  [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/parenthesizing-conditions/80000/4 "2022-04-25T17:54:34Z")
I believe the style guide refers to an outer pair of parentheses, which is a required part of the `if` statement in some programming languages but unnecessary in Julia. You shouldn’t be afraid of using semantically significant or clarifying parentheses. I.e., the style guide is fine with
```julia
if (1 == 1) | (1 == 2)
```
but advises against
```julia
if ((1 == 1) | (1 == 2))
```