Wednesday - March 13, 2024
#Computer Science #Blog #C Program #C, C++ and C#

Operator precedence and associativity

Operator precedence and associativity

Q) Explain operator presidency and associativity.

Operator Precedence of an operator:

  • In an expression when there is more the one operator involved, the evaluation of them is done based on their priority.
  • In C, every operator has its own priority (importance) this priority is known as the precedence of the operator.
  • This operator having more precedence will be evaluated first and the remaining will be evaluated later. Consider the following expression:

a = 5 + 6 * 10 ;

  • Here, the operation * will be performed first since it has higher precedence than +, later+operator will do its task and at the last =will be done.
  • The priority of each operator in C is given in the following table.
operator precedence meaning, operator precedence javascript, operator precedence table, operator precedence java, operator precedence in c, operator precedence in c with example, operator precedence in python, operator precedence c,

Associativity of operators

  • When an expression contains two or more operators of equal priority the tie between them is settled using the associativity of the operators.
  • Associativity can be two types Left to Right or Right to Left.
  • Left to Right associativity means that the left operand must be unambiguous. Unambiguous in what sense? It must not be involved in the evaluation of any other sub-expression. Similarly, in cases of Right to left associativity, the right operand must be unambiguous. Let us understand this with an example.

Consider the expression

a = 3 / 2 * 5 ;

  • Here there is a tie between operators of the same priority, that is between / and *. This tie is settled using the associativity of / and *. But both enjoy left to Right associativity.
  • The figure shows for each operator which operand is unambiguous and which is not.
Operator Left Right Remark
/ 3 2 or 2 * 5 The left operand is unambiguous, Right is not
* 3 / 2 or 2 5 The right operand is unambiguous, Left is not
  • Since both / and* have L to R associativity and only / has an unambiguous left operand (a necessary condition for L to R associativity) it is performed earlier.
  • After that * will be operated.

Operator Precedence Table

Description Operator Associativity
Function expression ( ) Left to Right
Array Expression [ ] Left to Right
Structure operator – > Left to Right
Structure operator . Left to Right
Unary minus Right to Left
Increment / Decrement ++   — Right to Left
One’s compliment ~ Right to Left
Negation ! Right to Left
Address of & Right to Left
Value of address * Right to Left
Typecast ( type ) Right to Left
Size in bytes sizeof Right to Left
Multiplication * Left to Right
Division / Left to Right
Modulus % Left to Right
Addition + Left to Right
Subtraction Left to Right
Left Shift << Left to Right
Right Shift >> Left to Right
Less than < Left to Right
Less than or equal to <= Left to Right
Greater than > Left to Right
Greater than or equal to >= Left to Right
Equal to == Left to Right
Not equal to != Left to Right
Bitwise AND & Left to Right
Bitwise exclusive OR ^ Left to Right
Bitwise inclusive OR | Left to Right
Logical AND && Left to Right
Logical OR || Left to Right
Conditional ? : Right to Left
Assignment = Right to Left
  *=   /=   %= Right to Left
  +=  -=  &= Right to Left
  ^=   |= Right to Left
  <<=     >>= Right to Left
Comma , Right to Left

.