2.8 OPERATORS and EXPRESSIONS

§  C supports a rich set of built-in operators.

§  An operator is a symbol that tells the computer to perform certain mathematical or logical manipulations.

§  C operators can be classified into 8 categories.

Arithmetic Operators

§  C provides all the basic arithmetic operators

Operator	Meaning
+	Addition
-	Subtraction
*	Multiplication
/	Division
%	Modulo division

NOTE: % cannot be applied to float data values

§  Three different type of calculations can be carried out:

                                i.            Integer arithmetic

                              ii.            Real arithmetic

                            iii.            Mixed-mode arithmetic: When one operand is integer and other floating point, the result is always floating point because integer gets promoted to float first and then the expression is evaluated.

Relational Operators

§  We often compare two quantities and depending on their relation, take certain decisions. These comparisons can be done with the help of relational operators.

Operator	Meaning
<	is less than
< =	is less than or equal to
>	is greater than
> =	is greater than or equal to
= =	is equal to
! =	is not equal to

 

Logical Operators

§  C has the following three logical operators

&& meaning logical AND

||      meaning logical OR

!      meaning logical NOT

Truth Table

OP-1	OP-2	OP-1 && OP-2	OP-1 || OP-2	!OP-1
1	1	1	1	0
1	0	0	1	-
0	1	0	1	1
0	0	0	0	-

 

Assignment Operator

§  Assignment operator is used to assign the result of an expression to a variable.

§  Syntax:

variable_name = expression;

§  C also has a set of ‘shorthand’ assignment operator of the form:

Syntax:

            v op = exp;

where, v is a variable

            op is a arithmetic operator

            exp is an expression

Statement with simple assignment operator	Statement with shorthand operator
a = a + 1	a + = 1
a = a - 1	a - = 1
a = a * (n+1)	a * = n + 1
a = a / (n+ 1)	a / = n - 1
a = a % b	a % = b

 

Increment and Decrement Operators

§  Increment and decrement operators are unary operators and they require variable as their operands.

§  These operators are solved right to left.

§  When postfix ++ (or --) is used with a variable in an expression, the expression is evaluated first using the original value of the variable and then the variable is incremented (or decremented) by one.

§  When prefix ++ (or --) is used in an expression, the variable is incremented (or decremented) first and then the expression is evaluated using the new value of the variable.

§  The precedence and associativity of ++ and – operators are the same as those of unary + and unary -.

Conditional Operator

§  A ternary operator pair’?:’ is available in C to construct conditional expressions of the form:

exp1 ? exp2 : exp3;

            where exp1, exp2, exp3 are expressions.

            Working

exp1 is evaluated first. If it is nonzero (true), then the expression exp2 is evaluated and becomes the value of the expression. If exp1 is false, exp3 is evaluated and its value becomes the value of the expression.

e.g.

a = 10;

b = 15;

x = (a > b) ? a : b;

Bitwise Operators

§  C has a distinction of supporting special operators known as bitwise operators for manipulation of data at bit level.

§  These operators are used for testing of bits, or shifting them right or left.

Operator	Meaning
&	bitwise AND
|	Bitwise OR
^	bitwise exclusive OR
<<	Shift Left
>>	Shift Right

Special Operators

a)      Comma Operator

§  The comma operator can be used to link the related expressions together.

§  A comma-linked list of expressions are evaluated left to right and the value of right-most expression is the value of the combined expressions.

e.g.      value = (x = 10, y = 5, x + y);
 

b)     sizeof Operator

§  the sizeof is a compile time operator and whn used with an operand, it returns the number of bytes the operator occupies.

§  The operand may be a variable, a constant or a data type qualifier.

e.g.      m = sizeof (sum);

            m = sizeof (long int);

§  The sizeof operator is normally used to determine the lengths of array and structures when their sizes are not known to the programmer.

§  It is also used to allocate memory space dynamically to variables during the execution of a program.

PRECEDENCE OF ARITHMETIC OPERATORS

§  An arithmetic expression without parentheses will be evaluated from left to right using the rules of precedence of operators.

§  There are two distinct priority levels of arithmetic operators in C:

High priority   *          /           %

Low priority    +          -

§  The basic evaluation procedure include ‘two’ left-to-right passes through the expression.

During the first pass, the high priority operators (if any) are applied as they are encountered.

During the second pass, the low priority operators (if any) are applied as they are encountered.

            e.g.

                                    x = 9 -  12 / 3 + 3 * 2 – 1

            First Pass:

Step 1: x = 9 – 4 + 3 * 2 – 1

Step 2: x = 9 – 4 + 6 – 1

            Second Pass:

                   Step 3: x = 5 + 6 – 1

                  Step 4: x = 11 – 1

                 Step 5: x = 10

 

TYPE CONVERSION IN EXPRESSIONS

§  If the operands are of different types, the lower type is automatically converted to the higher type before the operation proceeds. The result is of higher type.

§  Conversion Hierarchy

Fig 06: Conversion Hierarchy

 

§  Implicit Type Conversion

C permits mixing of constants and variables of different types in an expression. C automatically converts any intermediate values to the proper type so that the expression can be evaluated without losing any significance. This automatic conversion is known as implicit type conversion.
 

§  Explicit Type Conversion

The process of local conversion is known as explicit conversion or casting a value. The general form of cast is:

            (data type) expression;

e.g.

The calculation of ratio of females to males in a town is given by the formula:

ratio = female_number / male_number;
 

Since female_number and male_number are declared as integers in the program, the decimal part of the result of division would be lost and ratio would represent a wrong number. This problem can be solved by converting locally one of the variables to the floating point as shown below:
          ratio = (float) female_number / male_number;

The operator (float) converts the female_number to floating point for the purpose of evaluation of the expression. Then using the rule of automatic conversion, the division is performed in floating point mode, thus returning the fractional part of the result.

 

OPERATOR PRECEDENCE and ASSOCIATIVITY

§  Precedence is defined as the priority assigned to operators such that it would be clear that which operator should be applied first.

The operator with higher priority should be given priority over the operator with lower priority.

§  Associativity defines which operator will work and how it will work.

OPERATOR	DESCRIPTION	ASSOCIATIVITY	RANK
( ) [ ]	Function Call Array element reference	Left to Right	1
+ - ++ -- ! ~ * & sizeof (type)	Unary plus Unary minus Increment Decrement Logical negation One’s complement Pointer reference Address Size of an object Typecast(conversion)	Right to Left	2
* / %	Multiplication Division Modulus	Left to Right	3
+ -	Addition Subtraction	Left to Right	4
<<  >>	Left Shift Right Shift	Left to Right	5
<  < = >  > =	Less than Less than or equal to Greater than Greater than or equal to	Left to Right	6
= = !=	Equality Inequality	Left to Right	7
&	Bitwise AND	Left to Right	8
^	Bitwise XOR	Left to Right	9
|	Bitwise OR	Left to Right	10
&&	Logical AND	Left to Right	11
||	Logical OR	Left to Right	12
?:	Conditional Operator	Right to Left	13
= *=   /=   %= +=   -=   &= ^=   |= <<=   >>=	Assignment Operator	Right to Left	14
,	Comma Operator	Left to Right	15