Operators in C Programming

What are Operators in C

Operators are special symbols that perform specific operations on one, two, or more operands, and then return a result.

For example:

• The addition operator + performs addition on two operands and the assignment operator = assigns a value to a variable.

• An operand is a variable, constant or expression that is operated upon by an operator.

C has a rich set of operators, including arithmetic operators, relational operators, logical operators, bitwise operators, and more.

Types of operators in C

Types of operators in C include:

• Arithmetic Operators
• Relational/Comparison Operators
• Logical Operators
• Assignment Operators
• Ternary Operator
• Bitwise Operators
• Special Operators
• Increment and Decrement Operators

Table of Operators in C

Below is a table of common operators in C, grouped by type:

Type of Operator	Operator	Example	Result
Arithmetic	+	5 + 10	15
	-	10 - 5	5
	*	5 * 15	75
	/	15 / 5	3
	%	7 % 3	1
Comparison	==	5 == 5	true
	!=	5 != 10	true
	>	5 > 10	false
	<	5 < 10	true
	>=	5 >= 5	true
	<=	5 <= 10	true
Logical	&&	(5 > 2) && (10 < 20)	true
	||	(5 > 2) || (10 < 5)	true
	!	!(5 > 10)	true
Assignment	=	x = 5	x is 5
	+=	x += 5	x is 10
	-=	x -= 5	x is 5
	*=	x *= 5	x is 25
	/=	x /= 5	x is 5
Increment/Decrement	++	x++	x is 6
	--	x--	x is 5
Bitwise	&	x & y	bitwise and of x and y
	|	x | y	bitwise or of x and y
	^	x ^ y	bitwise xor of x and y
	~	~x	bitwise complement of x
	<<	x << y	bitwise left shift of x by y
	>>	x >> y	bitwise right shift of x by y
Special	sizeof	sizeof(x)	size of x in bytes
	&	&x	address of x
	*	*x	value at the address x
	.	x.y	member y of struct x
	->	x->y	member y of struct x
Ternary	?:	x>y? x: y	if x>y then x else y

note

This table is not an exhaustive list of all the operators in C, but rather a selection of the most commonly used operators.

Basic Example of operators in c

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int x = 5, y = 10, z = 15;

    // Arithmetic operators
    int sum = x + y; // sum = 15
    int difference = y - x; // difference = 5
    int multiplication = x * z; // multiplication = 75
    int quotient = z / x; // quotient = 3

    // Comparison operators
    if (x < y) { // true
        printf("x is less than y\n");
    }
    if (y >= z) { // false
        printf("y is greater than or equal to z\n");
    }

    // Logical operator
    if (x > 2 && y < 20) { // true
        printf("x is greater than 2 and y is less than 20\n");
    }

    // Assignment operator
    x = y; // x is now equal to 10

    // Increment and Decrement operator
    x++; // x is now equal to 11
    y--; // y is now equal to 9
    return 0;
}

Output:

Output:

x is less than y
x is greater than 2 and y is less than 20