About Logical Grouping of Selection Filter Tests (AutoLISP)

You can define test groups with nested Boolean expressions to filter objects from a selection set created with ssget.

The following table lists the grouping operators that you can use to filter selection sets:

Grouping operators for selection set filter lists
Starting operator	Encloses	Ending operator
"<AND"	One or more operands	"AND>"
"<OR"	One or more operands	"OR>"
"<XOR"	Two operands	"XOR>"
"<NOT"	One operand	"NOT>"

The grouping operators are specified by -4 dxf group codes, like the relational operators. They are paired and must be balanced correctly in the filter list or the ssget call will fail.

(ssget "X"
  '(
    (-4 . "<OR")
      (-4 . "<AND")
        (0 . "CIRCLE")
        (40 . 1.0)
      (-4 . "AND>")
      (-4 . "<AND")
        (0 . "LINE")
        (8 . "ABC")
      (-4 . "AND>")
    (-4 . "OR>")
  )
)

This filter list allows the selection of all circles with a radius of 1.0 plus all lines on layer "ABC". The grouping operators are not case-sensitive; for example, you can specify "and>", "<or", instead of "AND>", "<OR". Grouping operators are not allowed within the -3 dxf group code. Multiple application names specified in a -3 dxf group code use an implied AND operator. If you want to test for extended data using other grouping operators, specify separate -3 dxf group codes and group them as desired.

The following example code demonstrates how to select all circles having extended data for either application "APP1" or "APP2" but not both:

(ssget "X"
  '((0 . "CIRCLE")
    (-4 . "<XOR")
      (-3 ("APP1"))
      (-3 ("APP2"))
    (-4 . "XOR>")
  )
)

You can simplify the coding of frequently used grouping operators by setting them equal to a symbol. The previous example could be rewritten as follows (notice that in this example you must explicitly quote each list):

(setq <xor '(-4 . "<XOR")
         xor> '(-4 . "XOR>"))

(ssget "X"
  (list
    '(0 . "CIRCLE")
    <xor
    '(-3 ("APP1"))
    '(-3 ("APP2"))
    xor>
  )
)