Operators and Expression – An expression consists of variables and constants separated by operators. C language uses many type of operators as listed below:- 1. Arithmetic Operators
2. Relational Operators
3. Logical Operators
4. Increment and Decrement Operators
5. Assignment Operators
6. Conditional Operators
7. Bitwise Operators
Arithmetic Operators - The basic arithmetic operators in C are the same as in most other computer languages, and correspond to our usual mathematical/algebraic symbolism. The following arithmetic operators are present in C:
Operators | Meaning | Example | Result |
+ | Addition | 4+2 | 6 |
- | Subtraction | 4-2 | 2 |
* | Multiplication | 4*2 | 8 |
/ | Division | 4/2 | 2 |
% | Modulus operator to get remainder in integer division | 5%2 | 1 |
Some of the examples of algebraic expressions and their C notation are given below:
Expression | C notation |
b*g / b | (b*g) / b |
a^3+cd | (a*a*a)+cd |
Parentheses can be used in C expression in the same manner as algebraic expression For example,
a * (b + c).
The operands in arithmetic expressions can be of integer, float, double type. In order to effectively develop C programs, it will be necessary for you to understand the rules that are used for implicit conversation of floating point and integer values in C. They are mentioned below:
• An arithmetic operator between an integer and integer always yields an integer result.
• Operator between float and float yields a float result.
• Operator between integer and float yields a float result.
• If the data type is double instead of float, then we get a result of double data type.
For example:
Operation | Result |
5/3 | 1 |
5.0/3 | 1.3 |
5/3.0 | 1.3 |
5.0/3.0 | 1.3 |
The rules of arithmetic precedence are as follows:
1. Parentheses are at the “highest level of precedence”. In case of nested parenthesis, the innermost parentheses are evaluated first.
For example:
( ((3+4)*5)/6 )
The order of evaluation is given below.
( ( (3+4) * 5) / 6 )
↓ ↓ ↓
1 2 3
2. Multiplication, Division and Modulus operators are evaluated next. If an expression contains several multiplication, division and modulus operators, evaluation proceeds from left to right. These three are at the same level of precedence.
For example:
5*5+6*7
The order of evaluation is given below.
5*5+6*7
↓ ↓ ↓
1 3 2
3. Addition, subtraction are evaluated last. If an expression contains several addition and subtraction operators, evaluation proceeds from left to right. Or the associativity is from left to right.
For example:
8/5-6+5/2
The order of evaluation is given below.
8/5-6+5/2
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
1 3 4 2
Library Function (Intrinsic Functions or Math Functions) – To perform standard mathematical operations such as square root, absolute value and so on, built-in programs called library functions are available with the compiler. These functions can be used in an expression by mentioning their names with required number of arguments in parenthesis. Following are the commonly used mathematical library functions:-
(Click image for large view)
Note – The argument x used in this function is declared float or double and the complier directive #include<math.h>is used to include any of these functions in a C program.
Unary Plus ( + ) or Unary Minus ( – ) operations – When only one operand is used with + or – operators, the operation is called unary plus or unary minus, which does not actually refer to addition or subtraction.
Relational Operators– Relational operators are used to compare the value of operands (expressions) to produce a logical value. A logical value is either true or false. Following are the relational operators used in C language:-
Operators | Meaning | Example | Result |
< | Less than | 5>2 | False |
> | Greater than | 5>2 | True |
<= | Less than or equal to | 5<=2 | False |
>= | Greater than or equal to | 5>=2 | True |
== | Equal to | 5==2 | False |
!= | Not equal to | 5!=2 | True |
Note – In C language the logical value true is represented by integer 1 and false by 0 (zero).
Logical Operators – Logical operators are used to connect more relational operations to form a complex expression called logical expression. A value obtained by evaluating a logical expression is always logical, i.e. either true or false. Following are the logical operators in C:-
Operator | Meaning | Example | Result |
&& | Logical AND | (5<2)&&(5>3) | False |
|| | Logical OR | (5<2)||(5>3) | True |
! | Logical NOT | !(5<2) | True |
Note – Logical not ( ! ) is an unary operator which requires only one operand. It is also referred as invertor which converts the value of the operand from true to false and vice versa.
The following truth tables to understand the logical values obtained using the logical operators:-
&& |
Operand 1 | Operand 2 | Result |
True | True | True |
True | False | False |
False | True | False |
False | False | False |
|| |
Operand 1 | Operand 2 | Result |
True | True | True |
True | False | True |
False | True | True |
False | False | False |
! |
Operand | Result |
False | True |
True | False |
Increment ( ++) and Decrement ( -- ) Operators - The increment operator increments the variable by one and decrement operator decrements the variable by one. These operators can be written in two forms i.e. before a variable or after a variable. If an increment / decrement operator is written before a variable, it is referred to as pre-increment / pre-decrement operators and if it is written after a variable, it is referred to as post-increment / post-decrement operator.
For example:
a++ or ++a is equivalent to a = a+1 and
a-- or - -a is equivalent to a = a -1
The importance of pre and post operator occurs while they are used in the expressions. Pre-incrementing (Pre-decrementing) a variable causes the variable to be incremented (decremented) by 1, then the new value of the variable is used in the expression in which it appears. Post-incrementing (post-decrementing) the variable causes the current value of the variable are used in the expression in which it appears, then the variable value is incremented (decrement) by 1.
The explanation is given in the table below:
Operators | Meaning |
++a | Increment a by 1, then use the new value of a |
a++ | Use value of a, then increment a by 1 |
--b | Decrement b by 1, then use the new value of b |
b-- | Use the current value of b, then decrement by 1 |
The precedence of these operators is right to left. Let us consider the following examples:
int a = 2, b=3;
int c;
c = ++a – b- -;
printf (“a=%d, b=%d,c=%d\n”,a,b,c);
OUTPUT
a = 3, b = 2, c = 0.
Since the precedence of the operators is right to left, first b is evaluated, since it is a post decrement operator, current value of b will be used in the expression i.e. 3 and then b will be decremented by 1.Then, a pre-increment operator is used with a, so first a is incremented to 3. Therefore, the value of the expression is evaluated to 0.
Let us take another example,
int a = 1, b = 2, c = 3;
int k;
k = (a++)*(++b) + ++a - --c;
printf(“a=%d,b=%d, c=%d, k=%d”,a,b,c,k);
OUTPUT
a = 3, b = 3, c = 2, k = 6
The evaluation is explained below:
k = (a++) * (++b)+ ++a - --c
= (a++) * (3) + 2 - 2 step1
= (2) * (3) + 2 – 2 step2
= 6 final result
Assignment Operator (C Shorthand) – Assignment operators are used to perform arithmetic operations while assigning a value to a variable.
Operator | Example | Equivalent Expression (m=15) | Result |
+= | m +=10 | m = m+10 | 25 |
-= | m -=10 | m = m-10 | 5 |
*= | m *=10 | m = m*10 | 150 |
/= | m /= | m = m/10 | 1 |
%= | m %=10 | m = m%10 | 5 |
Conditional Operator ( ? : ) or Ternary Operators - C provides an called as the conditional operator (?:) which is closely related to the if/else structure. The conditional operator is C’s only ternary operator - it takes three operands. The operands together with the conditional operator form a conditional expression. The first operand is a condition, the second operand represents the value of the entire conditional expression it is the condition is true and the third operand is the value for the entire conditional expression if the condition is false.
The syntax is as follows:
(condition)? (expression1): (expression2);
If condition is true, expression1 is evaluated else expression2 is evaluated. Expression1/Expression2 can also be further conditional expression i.e. the case of nested if statement (will be discussed in the next unit).
Let us see the following examples:
(i) x= (y<20) ? 9: 10;
This means, if (y<20), then x=9 else x=10;
(ii) printf (“%s\n”, grade>=50? “Passed”: “failed”);
The above statement will print “passed” grade>=50 else it will print “failed”
(iii) (a>b) ? printf (“a is greater than b \n”): printf (“b is greater than a \n”);
If a is greater than b, then first printf statement is executed else second printf statement is executed.
Bitwise Operators– Bitwise operators are used to perform operations at binary digit level. These operators are not commonly used and are used only in special applications where optimized use of storage is required.
Operator | Meaning |
<< | Shifts the bits to left |
>> | Shifts the bits to right |
~ | Bitwise inversion (one’s complement) |
& | Bitwise logical end |
| | Bitwise logical or |
^ | Bitwise exclusive or |
Additional Operators – There two other operators that can be used in a C Program:-
1. Sizeof operator
2. Comma operator
Sizeof operator - C provides a compile-time unary operator called sizeof that can be used to compute the size of any object. The expressions such as:
sizeof object and sizeof(type name)
Result in an unsigned integer value equal to the size of the specified object or type in bytes. Actually the resultant integer is the number of bytes required to store an object of the type of its operand. An object can be a variable or array or structure. An array and structure are data structures provided in C, introduced in latter units. A type name can be the name of any basic type like int or double or a derived type like a structure or a pointer.
Example:
sizeof(char) = 1bytes
sizeof(int) = 2 bytes
Comma Operator - A comma operator is used to separate a pair of expressions. A pair of expressions separated by a comma is evaluated left to right, and the type and value of the result are the value of the type and value of the right operand. All side effects from the evaluation of the left operand are completed before beginning evaluation of the right operand. The left side of comma operator is always evaluated to void. This means that the expression on the right hand side becomes the value of the total comma-separated expression.
Example:
x = (y=2, y - 1);
First assigns y the value 2 and then x the value 1. Parenthesis is necessary since comma operator has lower precedence than assignment operator.
Generally, comma operator (,) is used in the for loop (will be introduced in the next unit)
For example:
for (i = 0,j = n;i<j; i++,j--)
{
printf (“A”);
}
In this example for is the looping construct. In this loop, i = 0 and j = n are separated by comma (,) and i++ and j—are separated by comma (,). The example will be clear to you once you have learnt for loop.
Essentially, the comma causes a sequence of operations to be performed. When it is used on the right hand side of the assignment statement, the value assigned is the value of the last expression in the comma-separated list.
