# Is there a technical syntax for CQL or only the English-like style?

Asked by clemd on 2024-08-20. Tags: cql.

Every CQL example I find looks like `user's score is greater than 90`. Reading
that in a code review diff is painful, apostrophes and prose where I expect
operators. Is the English style the only option, or is there a normal syntax
with comparison operators? Also curious whether variables exist or if every
value has to be inlined into the expression.

## 2 answers

### Answer from Chibueze Eze (2024-08-20)

There are three interchangeable styles: natural, technical, and mixed. Your
example in technical form is just

```cql
user.score > 90
```

and you can mix freely within one query, so a natural condition from a
marketer and your operator-style additions coexist fine.

Variables exist too:

```cql
let rocket = "x", speed = 28000;
```

and `&` concatenates strings. Comments work with `//`, `#`, or `/* */`, which
helps a lot in longer audience definitions that someone else has to maintain.

One detail to remember: keywords are case-insensitive but string literals are
not, so the style you pick has no effect on matching, only readability.

### Answer from hannah.j (2024-08-21)

We standardized on technical style for anything that lives in the repo and
natural style for audiences the marketing team edits in the dashboard. Same
language, evaluated the same way (the engine targets under 20ms per
evaluation), so it is purely a convention question. Diffs got a lot more
reviewable after we switched, so I sympathize with the apostrophe fatigue.