Operators in C

Overview of the C Operators

The C operators fall into the following categories:

• Postfix operators, which follow a single operand only.
• Unary prefix operators, which precede with a single operand.
• Binary operators, which take two operands and perform a variety of logical and arithmetic operations.
• The conditional operator (a ternary operator), which takes three operands and evaluates either the second or third expression, depending on the evaluation of the first expression only.
• Assignment operators, which only assign a value to a variable.
• The comma operator, which gives guarantees left-to-right evaluation of comma-separated expressions

To create more complex expressions,variables and constants can be used in conjunction with C operators. The following tables describes different operators available in c

Operator  Example  Description/Meaning  ()   f()   Function call  []   a[10]   Array reference  ->   a  ="">a> Structure and union member selection  .   s.a   Structure and union member selection  + [unary]  +a   Value of a  - [unary]  -a   Negative of a  * [unary]  *a   Reference to object at address a  & [unary]  &a   Address of a  ~  ~a   One's complement of a  ++ [prefix]  ++a   The value of a after increment  ++ [postfix]  a++   The value of a before increment  - - [prefix]  -a   The value of a after decrement  - - [postfix]  a-   The value of a before decrement  sizeof   sizeof (t1)   Size in bytes of object with type t1  sizeof   sizeof e   Size in bytes of object having the type of expression e  + [binary] - [binary] * [binary] / %  a + b a - b a * b a / b a % b   a plus b a minus b a times b a divided by b Remainder of a/b  >> <<  a >> b a << b   a, right-shifted b bits a, left-shifted b bits  < > <= >= == !=   a < b a > b a <= b a >= b a == b a != b   1 if a < b; 0 otherwise 1 if a > b; 0 otherwise 1 if a <= b; 0 otherwise 1 if a >= b; 0 otherwise 1 if a equal to b; 0 otherwise 1 if a not equal to b; 0 otherwise  & [binary] | ^  a & b a | b a ^ b   Bitwise AND of a and b Bitwise OR of a and b Bitwise XOR (exclusive OR) of a and b  && || !   a && b a || b !a   Logical AND of a and b (yields 0 or 1) Logical OR of a and b (yields 0 or 1) Logical NOT of a (yields 0 or 1)  ?:  a ? e1 : e2   Expression e1 if a is nonzero; Expression e2 if a is zero  = += -= *= /= %= >>= <<= &= |= ^= ,  a = b a += b a -= b a *= b a /= b a %= b a >>= b a <<= b a &= b a |= b a ^= b e1,e2   a, after b is assigned to it a plus b (assigned to a) a minus b (assigned to a) a times b (assigned to a) a divided by b (assigned to a) Remainder of a/b (assigned to a) a, right-shifted b bits (assigned to a) a, left-shifted b bits (assigned to a) a AND b (assigned to a) a OR b (assigned to a) a XOR b (assigned to a) e2 (e1 evaluated first)

Precedence of C Operators

Category  Operator  Associativity  Postfix  () [] -> . ++ - -   Left to right  Unary  + - ! ~ ++ - - (type) * & sizeof   Right to left  Multiplicative   * / %  Left to right  Additive   + -  Left to right  Shift   << >>  Left to right  Relational   < <= > >=  Left to right  Equality   == !=  Left to right  Bitwise AND  &  Left to right  Bitwise XOR  ^  Left to right  Bitwise OR  |  Left to right  Logical AND  &&  Left to right  Logical OR  ||  Left to right  Conditional  ?:  Right to left  Assignment  = += -= *= /= %= >>= <<= &= ^= |=  Right to left  Comma  ,  Left to right