C Operators [with Live Examples]
The C language supports a rich set of built-in operators. An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform a certain mathematical or logical operations, based on the values provided to the operator.
Operators are used in programs to manipulate data and variables.
Before moving forward with Operators in C language, we recommend you learn about C variables and datatypes:
C Variables
C Literals
C Datatypes
Using C Datatypes [Examples]
Compile and run C Program
C operators can be classified into the following types:
Arithmetic operators
Relational operators
Logical operators
Bitwise operators
Assignment operators
Conditional operators
Special operators
Let's understand each one of these operator types, one by one with working code examples.
What is an Operand?
An operand is a value on which any operator works. For example, when we say 4+5, here, numbers 4 and 5 are operands whereas + is an operator.
Different operators work with different numbers of operands like the + operator requires two operands or values.
C Arithmetic Operators
The C language supports all the basic arithmetic operators such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc.
The following table shows all the basic arithmetic operators along with their descriptions.
| + | adds two operands [values] | a+b |
| - | subtract second operands from first | a-b |
| * | multiply two operands | a*b |
| / | divide numerator by the denominator, i.e. divide the operand on the left side with the operand on the right side | a/b |
| % | This is the modulus operator, it returns the remainder of the division of two operands as the result | a%b |
| ++ | This is the Increment operator - increases integer value by one. This operator needs only a single operand. | a++ or ++a |
| -- | This is the Decrement operator - decreases integer value by one. This operator needs only a single operand. | --b or b-- |
To learn in what order the arithemtic operators are executed, visit C Operator Precedence.
Example: Basic Arithmetic Operators
Let's see a code example to understand the use of the basic arithmetic operators in C programs.
#include int main[] { int a = 50, b = 23, result; // addition result = a+b; printf["Addition of a & b = %d \n",result]; // subtraction result = a-b; printf["Subtraction of a & b = %d \n",result]; // multiplication result = a*b; printf["Multiplication of a & b = %d \n",result]; // division result = a/b; printf["Division of a & b = %d \n",result]; return 0; }
Addition of a & b = 73
Subtraction of a & b = 27
Multiplication of a & b = 1150
Division of a & b =
2
Run Code →
Example: Using Modulus Operator [%]
The modulus operator returns the remainder value after the division of the provided values.
#include int main[] { int a = 23, b = 20, result; // Using Modulus operator result = a%b; printf["result = %d",result]; return 0; }
result = 3
Run Code →
Example: Using Increment and Decrement Operators
The increment operator is used to increase the value of any numeric value by 1, whereas the decrement operator is used to decrease the value of any numeric value by 1.
#include int main[] { int a = 10, b = 20, c, d; /* Using increment operator */ printf["Incrementing value of a = %d \n", ++a]; /* Using decrement operator */ printf["Decrementing value of b = %d \n", --b]; // first print value of a, then decrement a printf["Decrementing value of a = %d \n", a--]; printf["Value of a = %d \n", a]; // first print value of b, then increment b printf["Incrementing value of b = %d \n", b++]; printf["Value of b = %d \n", b]; return 0; }
Incrementing value of a = 11
Decrementing value of b = 19
Decrementing value of a = 11
Value of a = 10
Incrementing value of b = 19
Value of b = 20
Run Code →
In the code example above, we have used the increment operator as ++a and b++, while the decrement operator as --b and a--.
When we use the increment and decrement operator as a prefix [means before the operand], then first the increment operation is done and that value is used, like in the first two printf[] functions, we get the updated values of a and b.
Whereas when we use the increment and decrement operators as postfix [means after the operand], then first the larger expression is evaluated which is printf[] in this case and then the value of the operand is updated.
C Relational operators
The relational operators [or comparison operators] are used to check the relationship between two operands. It checks whether two operands are equal or not equal or less than or greater than, etc.
It returns 1 if the relationship checks pass, otherwise, it returns 0.
For example, if we have two numbers 14 and 7, if we say 14 is greater than 7, this is true, hence this check will return 1 as the result with relationship operators. On the other hand, if we say 14 is less than 7, this is false, hence it will return 0.
The following table shows all relational operators supported in the C language.
| == | Check if two operands are equal | a == b, returns 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| != | Check if two operands are not equal. | a != b, returns 1 because a is not equal to b | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > | Check if the operand on the left is greater than the operand on the right | a > b, returns 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| < | Check operand on the left is smaller than the right operand | a < b, returns 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| >= | check left operand is greater than or equal to the right operand | a >= b, returns 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b;
printf["a >> b = %d \n",result];
return 0;
}
Run Code → C Assignment OperatorsThe sssignment operators are used to assign value to a variable. For example, if we want to assign a value 10 to a variable x then we can do this by using the assignment operator like: x = 10; Here, = [equal to] operator is used to assign the value. In the C language, the = [equal to] operator is used for assignment however it has several other variants such as +=, -= to combine two operations in a single statement. You can see all the assignment operators in the table given below.
When we combine the arithmetic operators with the assignment operator =, then we get the shorthand form of all the arthmetic operators. Example: Using Assignment OperatorsBelow we have a code example in which we have used all the different forms of assignment operator, starting from the basic assignment. #include int main[] { int a = 10; // Assign int result = a; printf["result = %d \n",result]; // += operator result += a; printf["result = %d \n",result]; // -= operator result -= a; printf["result = %d \n",result]; // *= operator result *= a; printf["result = %d \n",result]; return 0; }
Run Code → C Ternary Operator [?]The ternary operator, also known as the conditional operators in the C language can be used for statements of the form if-then-else. The basic syntax for using ternary operator is: [Expression1]? Expression2 : Expression3;Here is how it works:
Example: Using Ternary OperatorHere is a code example to show how to use ternary operator. #include int main[] { int a = 20, b = 20, result; /* Using ternary operator - If a == b then store a+b in result - otherwise store a-b in result */ result = [a==b]?[a+b]:[a-b]; printf["result = %d",result]; return 0; }
Run Code → C Special Operator - &, *, sizeof, etc.Apart from arithmetic, relational, logical, assignment, etc. operators, C language uses some other operator such as:
sizeof to find size of any entity[variable, array, etc.], & operator to find address of a variable, etc. You can see a list of such operators in the below table.
We will learn about *, dot operator, arrow operator and [] operator as we move on in this tutorial series, for now let's see how to use the sizeof and & operators. Example: Using sizeof and & OperatorsHere is a code example, try running in the live code compiler using the Run code button. #include int main[] { int a = 20; char b = 'B'; double c = 17349494.249324; // sizeof operator printf["Size of a is: %d \n", sizeof[a]]; printf["Size of b is: %d \n", sizeof[b]]; printf["Size of c is: %d \n", sizeof[c]]; // & operator printf["Memory address of a: %d \n", &a]; return 0; }
Run Code → Frequently Asked QuestionsHere are some frequently asked questions for C operators. Q1. What are operators in C?Operators are symbols known to the C compiler, which are used to perform operations on data. Operators can be used to perform operation directly on some value[C Literals] or on C variables. In the C language we can perform arithmetic operations, logical and relational operations, bitwise operations, etc. using the C operators on data. Q2. What are the different types of operators C supports?The C language supports the following type of operators:
Q3. What does * operator do in C?The * operator in the C language is a unary operator that returns the value of the object located at the address, specified after the * operator. For example q = *m will store the value stored at memory address m in the q variable, if m contains a memory address. The * operator is also used to perform multiplication of two values, where it acts as an arithmetic operator. Q4. What does != mean in C?It is a symbol of not equal to[!=] operator and used to check whether two values are not equal to each other or not. It is a relational operator and its opposite operator is an equal[==] operator which is used to check equality between two values or variables. If two values are not equal, then we will get 1 as the result of the comparison. Q5. What is & and * operators in C?Both are special types of operators and are used to perform memory-related operations. The & operator is used to get the address of a variable and the * operator is the complement of the & operator and is used to get the value of the object for located at a memory address. Q6. What does %d do in C?It is a format specifier that is used to print formatted output to the console. In the C language, it is used with the printf[] function[C Input Output] to display integer value to the console. To print float, C provides %f, for char we use %c, for double we use %lf, etc. Conclusion:In this tutorial, we learned all about the C language operators in detail along with a lot of code examples to see all the operators in action. What does != Mean in C?The not-equal-to operator [ != ] returns true if the operands don't have the same value; otherwise, it returns false .
What is '~' in C programming?In mathematics, the tilde often represents approximation, especially when used in duplicate, and is sometimes called the "equivalency sign." In regular expressions, the tilde is used as an operator in pattern matching, and in C programming, it is used as a bitwise operator representing a unary negation [i.e., "bitwise ...
What is & operator in C?Bitwise Operators. Chủ Đề |