CHAPTER

C Operators

A n operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical

manipulations. C language is rich in built-in operators and provides the following types of
operators:

Arithmetic Operators

Relational Operators

Logical Operators

Bitwise Operators

Assignment Operators

Misc Operators

This tutorial will explain the arithmetic, relational, logical, bitwise, assignment and other
operators one by one.

Arithmetic Operators
Following table shows all the arithmetic operators supported by C language. Assume
variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then:

Operator Description Example

+ Adds two operands A + B will give 30

- Subtracts second operand from the first A - B will give -10

* Multiplies both operands A * B will give 200

/ Divides numerator by de-numerator B / A will give 2

% Modulus Operator and remainder of after an integer division B % A will give 0

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 25
 ++ Increments operator increases integer value by one A++ will give 11

-- Decrements operator decreases integer value by one A-- will give 9

Try the following example to understand all the arithmetic operators available in C
programming language:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
int a = 21;
int b = 10;
int c ;

c = a + b;
printf("Line 1 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a - b;
printf("Line 2 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a * b;
printf("Line 3 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a / b;
printf("Line 4 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a % b;
printf("Line 5 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a++;
printf("Line 6 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a--;
printf("Line 7 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

Line 1 - Value of c is 31
Line 2 - Value of c is 11
Line 3 - Value of c is 210
Line 4 - Value of c is 2
Line 5 - Value of c is 1
Line 6 - Value of c is 21
Line 7 - Value of c is 22

Relational Operators
Following table shows all the relational operators supported by C language. Assume
variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then:

Operator Description Example

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 26
 Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if
== (A == B) is not true.
yes then condition becomes true.

Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if

!= (A != B) is true.
values are not equal then condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the

> value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes (A > B) is not true.
true.

Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value

< (A < B) is true.
of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or

>= equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition (A >= B) is not true.
becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal

<= to the value of right operand, if yes then condition (A <= B) is true.
becomes true.

Try the following example to understand all the relational operators available in C
programming language:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
int a = 21;
int b = 10;
int c ;

if( a == b )
{
printf("Line 1 - a is equal to b\n" );
}
else
{
printf("Line 1 - a is not equal to b\n" );
}
if ( a < b )
{
printf("Line 2 - a is less than b\n" );
}
else
{
printf("Line 2 - a is not less than b\n" );
}
if ( a > b )
{
printf("Line 3 - a is greater than b\n" );
}
else
{
printf("Line 3 - a is not greater than b\n" );
}
/* Lets change value of a and b */
a = 5;
b = 20;
if ( a <= b )

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 27
 {
printf("Line 4 - a is either less than or equal to b\n" );
}
if ( b >= a )
{
printf("Line 5 - b is either greater than or equal to b\n" );
}
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

Line 1 - a is not equal to b

Line 2 - a is not less than b
Line 3 - a is greater than b
Line 4 - a is either less than or equal to b
Line 5 - b is either greater than or equal to b

Logical Operators
Following table shows all the logical operators supported by C language. Assume
variable A holds 1 and variable B holds 0, then:

Operator Description Example

Called Logical AND operator. If both the operands are non-zero,

&& (A && B) is false.
then condition becomes true.

Called Logical OR Operator. If any of the two operands is non-

|| (A || B) is true.
zero, then condition becomes true.

Called Logical NOT Operator. Use to reverses the logical state

! of its operand. If a condition is true, then Logical NOT operator !(A && B) is true.
will make false.

Try the following example to understand all the logical operators available in C
programming language:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
int a = 5;
int b = 20;
int c ;

if ( a && b )
{
printf("Line 1 - Condition is true\n" );
}
if ( a || b )
{

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 28
 printf("Line 2 - Condition is true\n" );
}
/* lets change the value of a and b */
a = 0;
b = 10;
if ( a && b )
{
printf("Line 3 - Condition is true\n" );
}
else
{
printf("Line 3 - Condition is not true\n" );
}
if ( !(a && b) )
{
printf("Line 4 - Condition is true\n" );
}
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

Line 1 - Condition is true

Line 2 - Condition is true
Line 3 - Condition is not true
Line 4 - Condition is true

Bitwise Operators
Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit-by-bit operation. The truth tables for &, |,
and ^ are as follows:

P q p&q p|q p^q

0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 1 1

1 1 1 1 0

1 0 0 1 1

Assume if A = 60; and B = 13; now in binary format they will be as follows:

A = 0011 1100

B = 0000 1101

-----------------

A&B = 0000 1100

A|B = 0011 1101

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 29
A^B = 0011 0001

~A = 1100 0011

The Bitwise operators supported by C language are listed in the following table. Assume
variable A holds 60 and variable B holds 13, then:

Operator Description Example

Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the

& (A & B) will give 12, which is 0000 1100
result if it exists in both operands.

Binary OR Operator copies a bit if it

| (A | B) will give 61, which is 0011 1101
exists in either operand.

Binary XOR Operator copies the bit if it

^ (A ^ B) will give 49, which is 0011 0001
is set in one operand but not both.

Binary Ones Complement Operator is

~ (~A ) will give -60, which is 1100 0011
unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits.

Binary Left Shift Operator. The left

operands value is moved left by the
<< A << 2 will give 240, which is 1111 0000
number of bits specified by the right
operand.

Binary Right Shift Operator. The left

operands value is moved right by the
>> A >> 2 will give 15, which is 0000 1111
number of bits specified by the right
operand.

Try the following example to understand all the bitwise operators available in C
programming language:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{

unsigned int a = 60; /* 60 = 0011 1100 */

unsigned int b = 13; /* 13 = 0000 1101 */
int c = 0;

c = a & b; /* 12 = 0000 1100 */

printf("Line 1 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

c = a | b; /* 61 = 0011 1101 */
printf("Line 2 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

c = a ^ b; /* 49 = 0011 0001 */
printf("Line 3 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

c = ~a; /*-61 = 1100 0011 */

printf("Line 4 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

c = a << 2; /* 240 = 1111 0000 */

printf("Line 5 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

c = a >> 2; /* 15 = 0000 1111 */

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 30
 printf("Line 6 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

Line 1 - Value of c is 12
Line 2 - Value of c is 61
Line 3 - Value of c is 49
Line 4 - Value of c is -61
Line 5 - Value of c is 240
Line 6 - Value of c is 15

Assignment Operators
There are following assignment operators supported by C language:

Operator Description Example

Simple assignment operator, Assigns values C = A + B will assign value of A +

=
from right side operands to left side operand B into C

Add AND assignment operator, It adds right

+= operand to the left operand and assign the result C += A is equivalent to C = C + A
to left operand

Subtract AND assignment operator, It subtracts

-= right operand from the left operand and assign C -= A is equivalent to C = C - A
the result to left operand

Multiply AND assignment operator, It multiplies

*= right operand with the left operand and assign C *= A is equivalent to C = C * A
the result to left operand

Divide AND assignment operator, It divides left

/= operand with the right operand and assign the C /= A is equivalent to C = C / A
result to left operand

Modulus AND assignment operator, It takes

%= modulus using two operands and assign the C %= A is equivalent to C = C % A
result to left operand

<<= Left shift AND assignment operator C <<= 2 is same as C = C << 2

>>= Right shift AND assignment operator C >>= 2 is same as C = C >> 2

&= Bitwise AND assignment operator C &= 2 is same as C = C & 2

^= bitwise exclusive OR and assignment operator C ^= 2 is same as C = C ^ 2

|= bitwise inclusive OR and assignment operator C |= 2 is same as C = C | 2

Try the following example to understand all the assignment operators available in C
programming language:

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 31
 #include <stdio.h>

main()
{
int a = 21;
int c ;

c = a;
printf("Line 1 - = Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c += a;
printf("Line 2 - += Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c -= a;
printf("Line 3 - -= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c *= a;
printf("Line 4 - *= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c /= a;
printf("Line 5 - /= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c = 200;
c %= a;
printf("Line 6 - %= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c <<= 2;
printf("Line 7 - <<= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c >>= 2;
printf("Line 8 - >>= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c &= 2;
printf("Line 9 - &= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c ^= 2;
printf("Line 10 - ^= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

c |= 2;
printf("Line 11 - |= Operator Example, Value of c = %d\n", c );

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

Line 1 - = Operator Example, Value of c = 21

Line 2 - += Operator Example, Value of c = 42
Line 3 - -= Operator Example, Value of c = 21
Line 4 - *= Operator Example, Value of c = 441
Line 5 - /= Operator Example, Value of c = 21
Line 6 - %= Operator Example, Value of c = 11
Line 7 - <<= Operator Example, Value of c = 44
Line 8 - >>= Operator Example, Value of c = 11

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 32
 Line 9 - &= Operator Example, Value of c = 2
Line 10 - ^= Operator Example, Value of c = 0
Line 11 - |= Operator Example, Value of c = 2

Misc Operators sizeof & ternary

There are few other important operators including sizeof and ? : supported by C Language.

Operator Description Example

sizeof(a), where a is integer,

sizeof() Returns the size of an variable.
will return 4.

&a; will give actual address of

& Returns the address of an variable.
the variable.

* Pointer to a variable. *a; will pointer to a variable.

If Condition is true ? Then

?: Conditional Expression
value X : Otherwise value Y

Operators Precedence in C
Operator precedence determines the grouping of terms in an expression. This affects how
an expression is evaluated. Certain operators have higher precedence than others; for
example, the multiplication operator has higher precedence than the addition operator.

For example, x = 7 + 3 * 2; here, x is assigned 13, not 20 because operator * has higher
precedence than +, so it first gets multiplied with 3*2 and then adds into 7.

Here, operators with the highest precedence appear at the top of the table, those with the
lowest appear at the bottom. Within an expression, higher precedence operators will be
evaluated first.

Category Operator Associativity

Postfix () [] -> . ++ - - Left to right

Unary + - ! ~ ++ - - (type)* & sizeof Right to left

Multiplicative */% Left to right

Additive +- Left to right

Shift << >> Left to right

Relational < <= > >= Left to right

Equality == != Left to right

Bitwise AND & Left to right

Bitwise XOR ^ Left to right

Bitwise OR | Left to right

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 33
 Logical AND && Left to right

Logical OR || Left to right

Conditional ?: Right to left

Assignment = += -= *= /= %=>>= <<= &= ^= |= Right to left

Comma , Left to right

Try the following example to understand the operator precedence available in C

programming language:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
int a = 20;
int b = 10;
int c = 15;
int d = 5;
int e;

e = (a + b) * c / d; // ( 30 * 15 ) / 5
printf("Value of (a + b) * c / d is : %d\n", e );

e = ((a + b) * c) / d; // (30 * 15 ) / 5
printf("Value of ((a + b) * c) / d is : %d\n" , e );

e = (a + b) * (c / d); // (30) * (15/5)

printf("Value of (a + b) * (c / d) is : %d\n", e );

e = a + (b * c) / d; // 20 + (150/5)
printf("Value of a + (b * c) / d is : %d\n" , e );

return 0;
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

Value of (a + b) * c / d is : 90
Value of ((a + b) * c) / d is : 90
Value of (a + b) * (c / d) is : 90
Value of a + (b * c) / d is : 50

TUTORIALS POINT
Simply Easy Learning Page 34