While executing an arithmetic operation the precedence of the operators in C as well as other programming language matters a lot because precedence determines the grouping of terms in an expression and decides how an expression is evaluated. For instance, the expression might be having various arithmetic operators like ‘+’, ‘-‘, or ‘*’; then how to know which part of the expression gets executed first.

Priority of Operators:

Let us take a look at the precedence of commonly used operators :

here the priority goes from high(* / %) to low(=):

Associativity of Operators:

When an expression contains two operators of equal priority the tie between them is settled using the associativity of the operators. Associativity can be of two types – left to right or right to left:

• Left to right associativity means that the left operand must be unambiguous i.e., it must not be involved in the evaluation of any other sub-expression.
• Likewise, in case of right to left associativity, the right operand must be ambiguous.

Consider the expression-

a = 3 / 1 * 5 ;
output: 15

Here there is a tie between operators of same priority, that is between / and *. This tie is settled using the associativity of / and * since both / and * have L to R associativity and only / has unambiguous left operand ,therefore / is performed earlier.

note: also read about  Variables & Constants in C & Operators in C.

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Rabecca Fatima

Staying up to the mark is what defines me. Hi all! I’m Rabecca Fatima a keen learner, great enthusiast, ready to take new challenges as stepping stones towards flying colors.