Operators
C operators are symbols that are used to perform mathematical or logical manipulations. The C programming language is rich with built-in operators. Operators take part in a program for manipulating data and variables and form a part of the mathematical or logical expressions.
Types of operators:-
C programming language offers various types of operators having different functioning capabilities.
- Arithmetic Operators
- Relational Operators
- Logical Operators
- Assignment Operators
- Increment and Decrement Operators
- Conditional Operator
- Bitwise Operators
- Special Operators
Arithmetic Operators:-
C supports all the basic arithmetic operators. The following table shows all the basic arithmetic operators.
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| + | adds two operands |
| – | subtract second operands from first |
| * | multiply two operand |
| / | divide numerator by denominator |
| % | remainder of division |
| ++ | Increment operator – increases integer value by one |
| — | Decrement operator – decreases integer value by one |
Relational operators:-
The following table shows all relation operators supported by C.
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| == | Check if two operand are equal |
| != | Check if two operand are not equal. |
| > | Check if operand on the left is greater than operand on the right |
| < | Check operand on the left is smaller than right operand |
| >= | check left operand is greater than or equal to right operand |
| <= | Check if operand on left is smaller than or equal to right operand |
Logical operators:-
C language supports following 3 logical operators. Suppose a = 1 and b = 0,
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| && | Logical AND | (a && b) is false |
| || | Logical OR | (a || b) is true |
| ! | Logical NOT | (!a) is false |
Bitwise operators:-
Bitwise operators perform manipulations of data at bit level. These operators also perform shifting of bits from right to left. Bitwise operators are not applied to float or double(These are datatypes, we will learn about them in the next tutorial).
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| & | Bitwise AND |
| | | Bitwise OR |
| ^ | Bitwise exclusive OR |
| << | left shift |
| >> | right shift |
Assignment Operators:-
Assignment operators supported by C language are as follows.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| = | assigns values from right side operands to left side operand | a=b |
| += | adds right operand to the left operand and assign the result to left | a+=b is same as a=a+b |
| -= | subtracts right operand from the left operand and assign the result to left operand | a-=b is same as a=a-b |
| *= | mutiply left operand with the right operand and assign the result to left operand | a*=b is same as a=a*b |
| /= | divides left operand with the right operand and assign the result to left operand | a/=b is same as a=a/b |
| %= | calculate modulus using two operands and assign the result to left operand | a%=b is same as a=a%b |
Conditional operator:-
The Conditional Operator in C, also called a Ternary operator, is one of the Operators, which used in the decision-making process. The C Programming Conditional Operator returns the statement depends upon the given expression result.
Example:-
Test_expression ? statement1: statement2
Special operator:-
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| sizeof | Returns the size of an variable | sizeof(x) return size of the variable x |
| & | Returns the address of an variable | &x ; return address of the variable x |
| * | Pointer to a variable | *x ; will be pointer to a variable x |