The OR operator is often called an inclusive OR, whereas XOR is an exclusive OR.

Boolean operators are used widely in programming and also in forming database queries. For example, the query

SELECT ALL WHERE LAST_NAME = "Smith" AND FIRST_NAME = "John"

finds all records with the name John Smith. But the query

SELECT ALL WHERE LAST_NAME = "Smith" OR FIRST_NAME = "John"

finds all records with the last name "Smith" or the first name "John."