Lecture 05
Operators and Expressions
CSE115: Computing Concepts
Expressions
An expression is any valid set of literals, variables,
operators, operands and expressions that evaluates to
a single value.
This value can be a number, a string or a logical value.
For instance a = b + c; denotes an expression in which
there are 3 operands a, b, c and two operator + and =.
The number of operands of an operator is called its
arity.
Based on arity, operators are classified as nullary (no
operands), unary (1 operand), binary (2 operands),
ternary (3 operands).
Arithmetic Operators
Operation Operator Example Value of
(a=5,b=3) expression
Addition + 8+3 11
Subtraction - a-6 -1
Multiplication * a*b 15
Division / a/b 1
Modulus % a%b 2
Arithmetic Operators
• If both of the operands are int types, then the result
of the expression is an int too. If you want the result
to be any other type, you have to use typecasting.
int a = 3, b = 5;
double c;
c = 1/5; //value of c is 0.0
c = 1.0/5; //value of c is 0.2
c = a/b; //value of c is 0.0
c = (double)a/b; //value of c is 0.6
• You can use modulus (%) operation only on int
variables.
Assignment Operators
• Assignment operators are used to combine the '='
operator with one of the binary arithmetic operators
• In the following table, assume that c = 9 for all the
examples
Operator Example Equivalent Value of c is
Statement
+= c += 7 c = c + 7 16
-= c -= 8 c = c – 8 1
*= c *= 10 c = c * 10 90
/= c /= 5 c = c / 5 1
%= c %= 5 c = c % 5 4
Unary Operators
C Operation Operator Example
Positive + a = +3;
Negative - b = -a;
• The first assigns positive 3 to a.
• The second assigns the negative value of a to b.
Operator Precedence
• When an expression contains more than one operator,
the meaning of the expression may not be immediately
clear:
Does i + j * k mean (i + j) * k or
i + (j * k) ?
• In C, this potential ambiguity is resolved by operator
precedence.
• Precedence of the arithmetic operators:
Highest: + - (unary)
* / %
Lowest: + - (binary)
Operator Precedence
• Examples:
i + j * k means i + (j * k)
-i * -j means (-i) * (-j)
+i + j / k means (+i) + (j / k)
Associativity
• Operator precedence rules alone aren’t enough when an
expression contains two or more operators at the same level
of precedence. The associativity of the operators now comes
into play.
• The binary arithmetic operators are all left associative (they
group from left to right); the unary operators are right
associative.
• Examples of associativity:
i - j - k means (i - j) - k
i * j / k means (i * j) / k
i - j * i + k means (i - (j * i)) + k
- - i means -(-i)
Increment and Decrement
Operators
• The ++ and -- operators increment and decrement variables.
• Both operators have the same precedence as negation.
• Either operator can be prefix or postfix:
++i (same as i = i + 1)
i++ (same as i = i + 1)
--i (same as i = i - 1)
i-- (same as i = i - 1)
• When used as a prefix operator, ++ increments the variable
before its value is fetched:
i = 1;
printf("i is %d\n", ++i); /* prints "i is 2" */
Increment and Decrement
Operators
• When used as a postfix operator, ++ increments the variable
after its value is fetched:
i = 1;
printf("i is %d\n", i++); /* prints "i is 1" */
printf("i is %d\n", i); /* prints "i is 2" */
• The -- operator has similar properties:
i = 1;
printf("i is %d\n", --i); /* prints "i is 0" */
i = 1;
printf("i is %d\n", i--); /* prints "i is 1" */
printf("i is %d\n", i); /* prints "i is 0" */
Increment and Decrement
Operators
int R = 10, count=10;
Statement Equivalent R value Count
Statements value
R = count++; R = count;
count = count + 1 10 11
R = ++count; count = count + 1;
R = count; 11 11
R = count --; R = count;
count = count – 1; 10 9
R = --count; Count = count – 1;
R = count; 9 9
Partial List of C Operators
Precedence Operator Associativity
1 ++ (postfix) Left
-- (postfix)
2 ++ (prefix) Right
-- (prefix)
+ (unary)
- (unary)
3 * Left
/
%
4 + Left
-
5 = *= /= %= += -= right
Programming Exercise
•Try to predict the output of the following program and see if you can
get it right.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int x = 3;
printf("%d\n", 3 -2 / 4);
printf("%f\n", 3 -2.0 / 4);
printf("%d\n", -27 / -5 + 4 / 3);
printf("%d\n", 16 % -5 + 7 * 6);
printf("%d\n", -12 * 3 % 2 * -23 / +6 - 5 * 2);
printf("%d\n", x-- * 2 + 5);
printf("%d\n", x);
printf("%d\n", --x * 2 + 5);
printf("%d\n", 3 % 5 / (5 % 3));
return 0;
}
Bitwise Operators
& bitwise AND
| bitwise OR
^ bitwise XOR
~ 1’s compliment
<< Shift left
>> Shift right
All these operators (except ~) can be suffixed with =
For instance a &= b; is the same as a = a & b;
Bitwise Operators
• Truth table
~a a^b a|b a&b b a
1 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 0 1 0
0 1 1 0 0 1
0 0 1 1 1 1
Bitwise Operators
• Examples
11010011 11010011 11010011
& | ^
10001100 10001100 10001100
------------ ------------ ------------
10000000 11011111 01011111
~11010011
------------
00101100
Bitwise Operators
• Examples: int a = 33333, b = -77777;
Expression Representation Value
a 00000000 00000000 10000010 00110101 33333
b 11111111 11111110 11010000 00101111 -77777
a&b 00000000 00000000 10000000 00100101 32805
a^b 11111111 11111110 01010010 00011010 -110054
a|b 11111111 11111110 11010010 00111111 -77249
~(a|b) 00000000 00000001 00101101 11000000 77248
~a&~b 00000000 00000001 00101101 11000000 77248
Bitwise Operators
• Examples
11010011>>3 11010011<<3
------------ ------------
00011010 10011000
Bitwise Operators
char c = 130;
int a = 1 << 31; /* shift 1 to the high bit */
unsigned int b = 1 << 31;
Expressio Representation Action
n
c 10111100 unshifted
c << 4 11000000 left shifted 4
c >> 4 00001011 right shifted 4
a 10000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 unshifted
a >> 3 11110000 00000000 00000000 00000000 right shifted 3
b 10000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 unshifted
b >> 3 00010000 00000000 00000000 00000000 right shifted 3
Home-works
•• Write
a program that calculates the area and the perimeter of a rectangle where
the length and the width of the rectangle are provided by the user as inputs.
• Write a program that calculates the area of a triangle where the base and the
height of the triangle are provided by the user as inputs.
• Write a program that calculates the area and the perimeter of a circle where the
radius of the circle is provided by the user as input.
• Write a program that calculates the volume and surface area of a flat washer
where the outer diameter () and the inner diameter () are provided by the user
as input.
𝑑 2
𝑑
1
• Write a program that accepts a character (small letter) as input from the user
and (a) converts it into uppercase letter and (b) shows its binary equivalent. For
example if the user input is ‘b’ then your output is ‘B’ and 01100010 (ASCII code
of ‘b’ is 98 and binary equivalent of 98 is 01100010)
