An operator in a programming language is a symbol that tells the compiler or interpreter to perform a specific mathematical, relational or logical operation and produce a final result.
C has many powerful operators. Many C operators are binary operators, which means they have two operands. For example, in a / b
, /
is a binary operator that accepts two operands (a
, b
). There are some unary operators which take one operand (for example: ~
, ++
), and only one ternary operator ? :
.
Operators have an arity, a precedence and an associativity.
a * b + c
Gives the same result as
(a * b) + c
If this is not what was wanted, precedence can be forced using parentheses, because they have the highest precedence of all operators.
a * (b + c)