C Programming/Operators

An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical functions. C language is rich in built-in operators and provides the following types of operators:

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic Operators are used to performing mathematical calculations like addition +, subtraction -, multiplication *, division / and modulus %.

Operator	Description
+	Addition
-	Subtraction
*	Multiplication
/	Division
%	Modulus

Increment and Decrement Operators

Increment and Decrement Operators are useful operators generally used to minimize the calculation, i.e. ++x & x++ means x=x+1 or --x & x−− means x=x-1. But there is a slight difference between ++ or −− written before or after the operand. Applying the pre-increment first add one to the operand and then the result is assigned to the variable on left whereas post-increment first assigns the value to the variable on left and then increment the operand.

Operator	Description
++	Increment
−−	Decrement

Relational Operators

Relational operators are used to compare two quantities or values.

Operator	Description
==	Is equal to
!=	Is not equal to
>	Greater than
<	Less than
>=	Greater than or equal to
<=	Less than or equal to

Logical Operators

C provides three logical operators when we test more than one condition to make decisions. These are: && (meaning logical AND), || (meaning logical OR) and ! (meaning logical NOT).

Operator	Description
&&	And operator. Performs a logical conjunction of two expressions. (if both expressions evaluate to True, result is True. If either expression evaluates to False, result is False)
||	Or operator. Performs a logical disjunction on two expressions. (if either or both expressions evaluate to True, result is True)
!	Not operator. Performs logical negation on an expression.

Bitwise Operators

C provides a special operator for bit operation between two variables.

Operator	Description
<<	Binary Left Shift Operator
>>	Binary Right Shift Operator
~	Binary One's Complement Operator
&	Binary AND Operator
^	Binary XOR Operator
|	Binary OR Operator

Assignment Operators

Assignment operators applied to assign the result of an expression to a variable. C has a collection of shorthand assignment operators.

Operator	Description
=	Assign
+=	Increments then assigns
-=	Decrements then assigns
*=	Multiplies, then assigns
/=	Divides then assigns
%=	Modulus then assigns
<<=	Left shift and assigns
>>=	Right shift and assigns
&=	Bitwise AND assigns
^=	Bitwise exclusive OR and assigns
|=	Bitwise inclusive OR and assigns

Conditional Operator

C offers a ternary operator which is the conditional operator (?: in combination) to construct conditional expressions.

Operator	Description
? :	Conditional Expression

Special Operators

C supports some special operators

Operator	Description
sizeof()	Returns the size of a memory location.
&	Returns the address of a memory location.
*	Pointer to a variable.