In general, we know that Operator is a person who operates equipment or a machine. for a programming language, Operator is a symbol that tails compiler or an interpreter to perform specific mathematical or logical / relational manipulation. Unlike others programming language C or C++ has a wide range of operator to perform the various operation. To facilitate better understanding about operator we classified the operator as:

• Arithmetic Operators
• Increment and Decrement Operators
• Assignment Operators
• Relational Operators
• Logical Operators
• Conditional (ternary)  Operators
• Bitwise Operators
• Special Operators

C Arithmetic Operator:

• Addition or Unary Plus (+),
• Subtraction or Unary Minus (-),
• Multiplication (*),
• Division (/),
• Modulus or reminder or a division (%)

Above all are categorized under C arithmetic Operators. It works with two Operand.  The operand is a variable or a constant for example x=a+b here a and b are the operand of the operator (+).

1# Example Program  : Using Arithmetic Operators

 #include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
 int a = 10,b = 2, c;
 clrscr();
 c = a+b;
 printf("a+b = %d \n",c);

 c = a-b;
 printf("a-b = %d \n",c);
 
 c = a*b;
 printf("a*b = %d \n",c);
 
 c=a/b;
 printf("a/b = %d \n",c);
 
 c=a%b;
 printf("Remainder when a divided by b = %d \n",c);

 getch();
 
 return 0;
}

Output

a+b = 12
a-b = 8
a*b = 20
a/b = 5
Remainder when a divided by b=0

Increment and decrement operators

• Increment operator (++)
• Decrement operator (- -)

In general C programming has increment ++ and decrement — to step up  and step down the value of an operand (constant or variable) by 1.

Assume that you have a variable a holds value 5, then a++ step up the value by 1 after execution it will be 6. similarly, a– step down the value of a by 1 after execution it will be 4.  Here another thing I want to highlight that the operator has two modes one is pre-increment and another is post-increment.

 2# Example Program: Let’s focus on pre-increment bellow code block:

 #include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
   int a=5;b,c;   //here value of a =5

   b=++a;         //here pre-increment the value of a first then 
                  //asign to variable b now value of a is 6 and
                  // value of b is 6 

   c=a+b;         // here c= 12 

   printf("The Value of a=%d, b=%d, C=%d",a,b,c);

   getch();
   
}

Output:

a=6, b=6, c=12

 3# Example Program: Now focus on post- increment bellow code block:

  #include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
   int a=5;b,c;   //here value of a =5

   b=a++;         //here post-increment occur the value of a
                  // first assign to b then increase by 1
                  // now value of b is 5 and value of a is 6 

   c=a+b;         // here c= 11 

   printf("The Value of a=%d, b=%d, C=%d",a,b,c);

   getch();
   
}

Output:

a=6, b=5, c=11

C Assignment Operators

An assignment operator is used for assigning a value to a variable. The most common assignment operator is =

Pictorial Representation :

Shorthand technique of assignment operator:

A shorthand operator is a shorter way to express an assignment expression.

 4# Example Program: Using assignment operator

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
 int a = 5, c;

 c = a;
 printf("c = %d \n", c);

 c += a; // c = c+a
 printf("c = %d \n", c);

 c -= a; // c = c-a
 printf("c = %d \n", c);

 c *= a; // c = c*a
 printf("c = %d \n", c);

 c /= a; // c = c/a
 printf("c = %d \n", c);

 c %= a; // c = c%a
 printf("c = %d \n", c);

 return 0;
}

Output

c = 5 
c = 10 
c = 5 
c = 25 
c = 5 
c = 0

C Relational Operators

A relational operator find the relation between tow operand (Variable or Constant). If the relation is true, it returns 1; if the relation is false, it returns value 0. The Relational operators are mostly used in decision making and loops.

 5# Example Program:Using Relational Operator

 #include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
 int a = 5, b = 5, c = 10;

 printf("%d == %d = %d \n", a, b, a == b); // the expression returns true
 printf("%d == %d = %d \n", a, c, a == c); // the expression returns false

 printf("%d > %d = %d \n", a, b, a > b); //the expression returns false
 printf("%d > %d = %d \n", a, c, a > c); //the expression returns false


 printf("%d < %d = %d \n", a, b, a < b); //the expression returns false
 printf("%d < %d = %d \n", a, c, a < c); //the expression returns true


 printf("%d != %d = %d \n", a, b, a != b); //the expression returns false
 printf("%d != %d = %d \n", a, c, a != c); //true


 printf("%d >= %d = %d \n", a, b, a >= b); //the expression returns true
 printf("%d >= %d = %d \n", a, c, a >= c); //false


 printf("%d <= %d = %d \n", a, b, a <= b); //the expression returns true
 printf("%d <= %d = %d \n", a, c, a <= c); //the expression returns true

 return 0;

}

Output

5 == 5 = 1
5 == 10 = 0
5 > 5 = 0
5 > 10 = 0
5 < 5 = 0
5 < 10 = 1
5 != 5 = 0
5 != 10 = 1
5 >= 5 = 1
5 >= 10 = 0
5 <= 5 = 1
5 <= 10 = 1 

C Logical Operators

These operators are used to perform logical operations on the given expressions. There are 3 logical operators in C language. They are, logical AND (&&), logical OR (||) and logical NOT (!).

Circuit Diagram of And (&&) Operator

Circuit Diagram of OR (||) Operator

Circuit Diagram of OR (!) Operator

6# Example Program:Using Logical Operator

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
 int a = 5, b = 5, c = 10, result;

 clrscr();

 result = (a = b) && (c > b);     // The expression returns True
 printf("(a = b) && (c > b) equals to %d \n", result);

 result = (a = b) && (c < b);     // The expression returns Fasle
 printf("(a = b) && (c < b) equals to %d \n", result);

 result = (a = b) || (c < b);     // The expression returns True
 printf("(a = b) || (c < b) equals to %d \n", result);

 result = (a != b) || (c < b);    // The expression returns False 
 printf("(a != b) || (c < b) equals to %d \n", result);

 result = !(a != b);              // The expression returns True
 printf("!(a == b) equals to %d \n", result);

 result = !(a == b);            // The expression returns False
 printf("!(a == b) equals to %d \n", result);

 return 0;
 getch();
}

Output

(a = b) && (c > b) equals to 1 
(a = b) && (c < b) equals to 0 
(a = b) || (c < b) equals to 1 
(a != b) || (c < b) equals to 0 
!(a != b) equals to 1 
!(a == b) equals to 0 

Conditional (ternary)  Operators

The conditional (ternary) operator  is a shortcut of If statement in c. It operates three operands thus it called ternary operator. The basic syntax of a Conditional operator is   condition ? expression 1 : expression 2 

7# Example Program:Using Conditional (Ternary ) Operator

#include<stdio.h>
void main();
{
   age, flag;
   clrscr();
   printf("Enter Your Age :);
   scanf("%d",&age);
   age>=18? flag=1 : flag=0;
   if(flag==1)
     printf("You are Young and Adult);
   else
     printf("You are  junior ");
   getch();

}

Output:

Enter Your Age: 12

You are junior

Bitwise Operators

As we discuss earlier post that, C is a middle-level language which has both high and low-level features. Here you can perform the bit-level operation using Bitwise operator.

C provides six operators for bit manipulation these are:

8# Example Program:Using bitwise shift operator

 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <conio.h>
 
 void showbits(unsigned int x)
 {
 int i; 
 for(i=(sizeof(int)*8)-1; i>=0; i--)
 (x&(1u<<i))?putchar('1'):putchar('0');
 
 printf("\n");
 }

 int main() 
 {
 int j = 5225, m, n;
 printf("The decimal %d is equal to binary - ", j);
 /* assume we have a function that prints a binary string when given 
 a decimal integer 
 */
 showbits(j);

 /* the loop for right shift operation */
 for ( m = 0; m <= 5; m++ ) {
 n = j >> m;
 printf("%d right shift %d gives ", j, m);
 showbits(n);
 }
 return 0;
 }

The output of the above program will be

  The decimal 5225 is equal to binary - 0001010001101001
  5225 right shift 0 gives 0001010001101001
  5225 right shift 1 gives 0000101000110100
  5225 right shift 2 gives 0000010100011010
  5225 right shift 3 gives 0000001010001101
  5225 right shift 4 gives 0000000101000110
  5225 right shift 5 gives 0000000010100011

     01001000 & 
     10111000 = 
     -------- 
     00001000

     11001110
   | 10011000
   = 11011110

Special Operators

Pointer(*), sizeof, comma(,) following you can categorise under special operator.

Sizeof Operator

The sizeof is an unary operator which returns the size of data (constant, variables, array, structure etc). it is widely used when you have to dynamic allocation of memory in your program.

 #include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
 int a, e[10];
 float b;
 double c;
 char d;
 printf("Size of int=%lu bytes\n",sizeof(a));
 printf("Size of float=%lu bytes\n",sizeof(b));
 printf("Size of double=%lu bytes\n",sizeof(c));
 printf("Size of char=%lu byte\n",sizeof(d));
 printf("Size of integer type array having 10 elements = %lu bytes\n", sizeof(e));
 return 0;
}

Output

Size of int = 4 bytes
Size of float = 4 bytes
Size of double = 8 bytes
Size of char = 1 byte
Size of integer type array having 10 elements = 40 bytes

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(){
 int n,i,*ptr,sum=0;
 printf("Enter number of elements: ");
 scanf("%d",&n);
 ptr=(int*)malloc(n*sizeof(int)); //memory allocated using malloc
 if(ptr==NULL) 
 {
 printf("Error! memory not allocated.");
 exit(0);
 }
 printf("Enter elements of array: ");
 for(i=0;i<n;++i)
 {
 scanf("%d",ptr+i);
 sum+=*(ptr+i);
 }
 printf("Sum=%d",sum);
 free(ptr);
 return 0;
}

 In general, we use static allocation of memory in the declaration section of C program, but in a large project, you need to allocate memory at any moment and any point of your project. The above program we use malloc function that dynamically allocates memory and the sizeof operator tells malloc function that how much memory should allocate.

Pointer

A pointer is a variable which contains the address in memory of another variable. We can have a pointer to any variable type.

The unary or monadic operator & gives the “address of a variable”.

The indirection or dereference operator * gives the “contents of an object pointed to by a pointer”.

Declaration of  a pointer variable:

int *pointer;

Unary, Binary, Ternary Operators in C

C Operator Precedence Table

Here is the lists of C operators in order to precedence (highest to lowest). Their associativity indicates in what order operators of equal precedence in an expression are applied.

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Subroto Mondal

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I like Programming and New Technologies. And work with Linux.

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