Operators in C Language | Different type of Operators in C language

Introduction:

In our previous article, We have discussed Keywords in C-Langauge. In todays article, We will discuss about the Operators in C programming language. and we will also look into different types of operators of c-language with examples.

Operators in C Language:

An Operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific task. For example, The addition operator plus ( '+' ) used to perform the addition operation.

All Operators operate on the Operands.

What are Operands :

Operands are data elements on which operator acts. Let’s take an example.

sum = 10 + 20;

Here the '+' ( Plus ) is an Addition Operator

and numbers 10 and 20 are the operands.

C Programming Language supports different types of Operators. Different operator takes different number of operands to perform its task.

Depending upon the number of operands, The Operators are Classified into 3 types.

1. Unary Operators      
2. Binary Operators
3. Ternary Operators    

Unary Operators:

Unary operators act on single Operand. These unary Operators need only one operand to perform the operation.

Few examples of Unary Operators:

• One’s Compliment Operator ( ~ )
• Increment ( Post / Pre ) Operators ( ++ )
• Decrement ( Pre / Post ) Operators ( -- )
• Unary Plus ( + )
• Unary Minus ( - )

Binary Operators:

The Operators which need two operands to perform its operation are called Binary Operators.

Here are few examples of Binary Operators in C Language.

• Addition Operator ( + )
• Subtraction Operator ( - )
• Multiplication Operator ( * )
• Division Operator ( / )
• Modulus Operator ( % )

Ternary Operators:

Ternary Operators need three Operands to accomplish it’s task.

For example, C Language have Condition Operator which uses three Operands to perform its operation.

• Conditional Operator ( : ? )

Classification of Operators in C Programming Language:

The above classification is based on the number of Operands. But we also have other classification like Role based classification. All C Operators falls under several categories based on their role, Which are

1. Arithmetic Operators.
   1. Division Operator behaviour based on Operand datatype 
   2. Modulus Operator
2. Assignment Operators.
3. Increment Operator and Pre and post Increments
4. Decrements Operators and Pre and post decrements
5. Relational Operators.
6. Conditional Operator.
7. Logical Operators
8. Comma Operator.
9. Sizeof Operator.
10. Bitwise Operators.
    1. Bit-wise OR ( | )
    2. Bit-wise AND( & )
11. Precedence and Associativity of Operators

Here are few examples of above Operators.

Arithmetic Operators:

These Operators are used to perform the Arithmetic Operations like Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, etc.

Here is the list of arithmetic operator in C programming Language

Assignment Operators ( Compound Operators ) in C :

The Assignment Operators used to assign values to Variables.

The equal = is the Assignment operator.

int x = 10  // assignment operation ( Variable Initialisation )

In above statement, We have created a variable called x and assigned the value 10 to it using assignment Operator ( = )

The C programming language also supports Compound assignment operators to perform the assignments along with other arithmetic operations.

For example,

x = 100    //  Simple assignment

x += 200    //  compound operation

In the above example, x += 200is a Compound Assignment Operation. Which is equal to x = x + 200

Here is the list of Compound Assignment Operations.

Operator	Syntax	Description	Example
Assignment ( = )	a = b	Creates variable 'a' and assigns value 'b'to it.	> a = 10 a value is 10
Compound Addition ( += ) or Add and Assign	a += b	First, Evaluate the addition of a+b then assigns result to a step 1: a+b step 2 : a = a+b //result of a+b will be assigned to a	> a = 10 > a += 10 a value is 20
Compound Subtract ( -= ) or Subtract and Assign	a -= b	First, Evaluate the a-b then assign the result to a	> a = 10 > a -= 10 a value is
Compound product ( *= ) or Multiply and Assign	a *= b	First, Evaluate the a*b then assign the result to a	> a = 10 > a *= 10 a value is 100
Compound division ( /= ) or Division and Assign	a/= b	First, Evaluate the a/b then assign the result to a	> a = 10 > a /= 10 a value is 1
Compound Modulus ( %= ) or Modulus and Assign	a %= b	First, Evaluate the a%b then assign the result to a	> a = 10 > a %= 10 a value is

For above example, We took a variable a and assigned the value 10. Then performed compound addition, compound subtraction, etc operations with variable a and value 10 and displayed the result values. ( i.e a values)

Please go through the above operators links for learning more about each operator.

Conclusion:

In this article, We have discussed about the operators in C language and different types of Operators.

Related Articles:

• Start Here – Step by step tutorials to Learn C programming Online with Example Programs – SillyCodes
• Come Together – The Collection of all Pattern Programs in C – SillyCodes