assignment operators names

cppreference.com

Assignment operators.

Assignment and compound assignment operators are binary operators that modify the variable to their left using the value to their right.

[ edit ] Simple assignment

The simple assignment operator expressions have the form

Assignment performs implicit conversion from the value of rhs to the type of lhs and then replaces the value in the object designated by lhs with the converted value of rhs .

Assignment also returns the same value as what was stored in lhs (so that expressions such as a = b = c are possible). The value category of the assignment operator is non-lvalue (so that expressions such as ( a = b ) = c are invalid).

rhs and lhs must satisfy one of the following:

both lhs and rhs have compatible struct or union type, or..
rhs must be implicitly convertible to lhs , which implies
both lhs and rhs have arithmetic types , in which case lhs may be volatile -qualified or atomic (since C11)
both lhs and rhs have pointer to compatible (ignoring qualifiers) types, or one of the pointers is a pointer to void, and the conversion would not add qualifiers to the pointed-to type. lhs may be volatile or restrict (since C99) -qualified or atomic (since C11) .
lhs is a (possibly qualified or atomic (since C11) ) pointer and rhs is a null pointer constant such as NULL or a nullptr_t value (since C23)

[ edit ] Notes

If rhs and lhs overlap in memory (e.g. they are members of the same union), the behavior is undefined unless the overlap is exact and the types are compatible .

Although arrays are not assignable, an array wrapped in a struct is assignable to another object of the same (or compatible) struct type.

The side effect of updating lhs is sequenced after the value computations, but not the side effects of lhs and rhs themselves and the evaluations of the operands are, as usual, unsequenced relative to each other (so the expressions such as i = ++ i ; are undefined)

Assignment strips extra range and precision from floating-point expressions (see FLT_EVAL_METHOD ).

In C++, assignment operators are lvalue expressions, not so in C.

[ edit ] Compound assignment

The compound assignment operator expressions have the form

The expression lhs @= rhs is exactly the same as lhs = lhs @ ( rhs ) , except that lhs is evaluated only once.

[ edit ] References

C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
6.5.16 Assignment operators (p: 72-73)
C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
6.5.16 Assignment operators (p: 101-104)
C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
6.5.16 Assignment operators (p: 91-93)
C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
3.3.16 Assignment operators

[ edit ] See Also

Operator precedence

[ edit ] See also

Recent changes
Offline version
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Printable version
Permanent link
Page information
In other languages
This page was last modified on 19 August 2022, at 08:36.
This page has been accessed 54,567 times.
Privacy policy
About cppreference.com
Disclaimers

C Programming Tutorial
C - Overview
C - Features
C - History
C - Environment Setup
C - Program Structure
C - Hello World
C - Compilation Process
C - Comments
C - Keywords
C - Identifiers
C - User Input
C - Basic Syntax
C - Data Types
C - Variables
C - Integer Promotions
C - Type Conversion
C - Constants
C - Literals
C - Escape sequences
C - Format Specifiers
C - Storage Classes
C - Operators
C - Decision Making
C - if statement
C - if...else statement
C - nested if statements
C - switch statement
C - nested switch statements
C - While loop
C - Functions
C - Main Functions
C - Return Statement
C - Scope Rules
C - Properties of Array
C - Multi-Dimensional Arrays
C - Passing Arrays to Function
C - Return Array from Function
C - Variable Length Arrays
C - Pointers
C - Pointer Arithmetics
C - Passing Pointers to Functions
C - Strings
C - Array of Strings
C - Structures
C - Structures and Functions
C - Arrays of Structures
C - Pointers to Structures
C - Self-Referential Structures
C - Nested Structures
C - Bit Fields
C - Typedef
C - Input & Output
C - File I/O
C - Preprocessors
C - Header Files
C - Type Casting
C - Error Handling
C - Recursion
C - Variable Arguments
C - Memory Management
C - Command Line Arguments
C Programming Resources
C - Questions & Answers
C - Quick Guide
C - Useful Resources
C - Discussion
Selected Reading
UPSC IAS Exams Notes
Developer's Best Practices
Questions and Answers
Effective Resume Writing
HR Interview Questions
Computer Glossary

Assignment Operators in C

In C, the assignment operator stores a certain value in an already declared variable. A variable in C can be assigned the value in the form of a literal, another variable or an expression. The value to be assigned forms the right hand operand, whereas the variable to be assigned should be the operand to the left of = symbol, which is defined as a simple assignment operator in C. In addition, C has several augmented assignment operators.

The following table lists the assignment operators supported by the C language −

Simple assignment operator (=)

The = operator is the most frequently used operator in C. As per ANSI C standard, all the variables must be declared in the beginning. Variable declaration after the first processing statement is not allowed. You can declare a variable to be assigned a value later in the code, or you can initialize it at the time of declaration.

You can use a literal, another variable or an expression in the assignment statement.

Once a variable of a certain type is declared, it cannot be assigned a value of any other type. In such a case the C compiler reports a type mismatch error.

In C, the expressions that refer to a memory location are called "lvalue" expressions. A lvalue may appear as either the left-hand or right-hand side of an assignment.

On the other hand, the term rvalue refers to a data value that is stored at some address in memory. A rvalue is an expression that cannot have a value assigned to it which means an rvalue may appear on the right-hand side but not on the left-hand side of an assignment.

Variables are lvalues and so they may appear on the left-hand side of an assignment. Numeric literals are rvalues and so they may not be assigned and cannot appear on the left-hand side. Take a look at the following valid and invalid statements −

Augmented assignment operators

In addition to the = operator, C allows you to combine arithmetic and bitwise operators with the = symbol to form augmented or compound assignment operator. The augmented operators offer a convenient shortcut for combining arithmetic or bitwise operation with assignment.

For example, the expression a+=b has the same effect of performing a+b first and then assigning the result back to the variable a.

Similarly, the expression a<<=b has the same effect of performing a<<b first and then assigning the result back to the variable a.

Here is a C program that demonstrates the use of assignment operators in C:

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result −

This browser is no longer supported.

Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.

Assignment operators (C# reference)

11 contributors

The assignment operator = assigns the value of its right-hand operand to a variable, a property , or an indexer element given by its left-hand operand. The result of an assignment expression is the value assigned to the left-hand operand. The type of the right-hand operand must be the same as the type of the left-hand operand or implicitly convertible to it.

The assignment operator = is right-associative, that is, an expression of the form

is evaluated as

The following example demonstrates the usage of the assignment operator with a local variable, a property, and an indexer element as its left-hand operand:

The left-hand operand of an assignment receives the value of the right-hand operand. When the operands are of value types , assignment copies the contents of the right-hand operand. When the operands are of reference types , assignment copies the reference to the object.

This is called value assignment : the value is assigned.

ref assignment

Ref assignment = ref makes its left-hand operand an alias to the right-hand operand, as the following example demonstrates:

In the preceding example, the local reference variable arrayElement is initialized as an alias to the first array element. Then, it's ref reassigned to refer to the last array element. As it's an alias, when you update its value with an ordinary assignment operator = , the corresponding array element is also updated.

The left-hand operand of ref assignment can be a local reference variable , a ref field , and a ref , out , or in method parameter. Both operands must be of the same type.

Compound assignment

For a binary operator op , a compound assignment expression of the form

is equivalent to

except that x is only evaluated once.

Compound assignment is supported by arithmetic , Boolean logical , and bitwise logical and shift operators.

Null-coalescing assignment

You can use the null-coalescing assignment operator ??= to assign the value of its right-hand operand to its left-hand operand only if the left-hand operand evaluates to null . For more information, see the ?? and ??= operators article.

Operator overloadability

A user-defined type can't overload the assignment operator. However, a user-defined type can define an implicit conversion to another type. That way, the value of a user-defined type can be assigned to a variable, a property, or an indexer element of another type. For more information, see User-defined conversion operators .

A user-defined type can't explicitly overload a compound assignment operator. However, if a user-defined type overloads a binary operator op , the op= operator, if it exists, is also implicitly overloaded.

C# language specification

For more information, see the Assignment operators section of the C# language specification .

C# operators and expressions
ref keyword
Use compound assignment (style rules IDE0054 and IDE0074)

Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback .

Submit and view feedback for

Additional resources

Skip to main content
Select language
Skip to search
Expressions and operators
Operator precedence

Left-hand-side expressions

« Previous Next »

This chapter describes JavaScript's expressions and operators, including assignment, comparison, arithmetic, bitwise, logical, string, ternary and more.

A complete and detailed list of operators and expressions is also available in the reference .

JavaScript has the following types of operators. This section describes the operators and contains information about operator precedence.

Assignment operators
Comparison operators
Arithmetic operators
Bitwise operators

Logical operators

String operators, conditional (ternary) operator.

Comma operator

Unary operators

Relational operator

JavaScript has both binary and unary operators, and one special ternary operator, the conditional operator. A binary operator requires two operands, one before the operator and one after the operator:

For example, 3+4 or x*y .

A unary operator requires a single operand, either before or after the operator:

For example, x++ or ++x .

An assignment operator assigns a value to its left operand based on the value of its right operand. The simple assignment operator is equal ( = ), which assigns the value of its right operand to its left operand. That is, x = y assigns the value of y to x .

There are also compound assignment operators that are shorthand for the operations listed in the following table:

Destructuring

For more complex assignments, the destructuring assignment syntax is a JavaScript expression that makes it possible to extract data from arrays or objects using a syntax that mirrors the construction of array and object literals.

A comparison operator compares its operands and returns a logical value based on whether the comparison is true. The operands can be numerical, string, logical, or object values. Strings are compared based on standard lexicographical ordering, using Unicode values. In most cases, if the two operands are not of the same type, JavaScript attempts to convert them to an appropriate type for the comparison. This behavior generally results in comparing the operands numerically. The sole exceptions to type conversion within comparisons involve the === and !== operators, which perform strict equality and inequality comparisons. These operators do not attempt to convert the operands to compatible types before checking equality. The following table describes the comparison operators in terms of this sample code:

Note: ( => ) is not an operator, but the notation for Arrow functions .

An arithmetic operator takes numerical values (either literals or variables) as their operands and returns a single numerical value. The standard arithmetic operators are addition ( + ), subtraction ( - ), multiplication ( * ), and division ( / ). These operators work as they do in most other programming languages when used with floating point numbers (in particular, note that division by zero produces Infinity ). For example:

In addition to the standard arithmetic operations (+, -, * /), JavaScript provides the arithmetic operators listed in the following table:

A bitwise operator treats their operands as a set of 32 bits (zeros and ones), rather than as decimal, hexadecimal, or octal numbers. For example, the decimal number nine has a binary representation of 1001. Bitwise operators perform their operations on such binary representations, but they return standard JavaScript numerical values.

The following table summarizes JavaScript's bitwise operators.

Bitwise logical operators

Conceptually, the bitwise logical operators work as follows:

The operands are converted to thirty-two-bit integers and expressed by a series of bits (zeros and ones). Numbers with more than 32 bits get their most significant bits discarded. For example, the following integer with more than 32 bits will be converted to a 32 bit integer: Before: 11100110111110100000000000000110000000000001 After: 10100000000000000110000000000001
Each bit in the first operand is paired with the corresponding bit in the second operand: first bit to first bit, second bit to second bit, and so on.
The operator is applied to each pair of bits, and the result is constructed bitwise.

For example, the binary representation of nine is 1001, and the binary representation of fifteen is 1111. So, when the bitwise operators are applied to these values, the results are as follows:

Note that all 32 bits are inverted using the Bitwise NOT operator, and that values with the most significant (left-most) bit set to 1 represent negative numbers (two's-complement representation).

Bitwise shift operators

The bitwise shift operators take two operands: the first is a quantity to be shifted, and the second specifies the number of bit positions by which the first operand is to be shifted. The direction of the shift operation is controlled by the operator used.

Shift operators convert their operands to thirty-two-bit integers and return a result of the same type as the left operand.

The shift operators are listed in the following table.

Logical operators are typically used with Boolean (logical) values; when they are, they return a Boolean value. However, the && and || operators actually return the value of one of the specified operands, so if these operators are used with non-Boolean values, they may return a non-Boolean value. The logical operators are described in the following table.

Examples of expressions that can be converted to false are those that evaluate to null, 0, NaN, the empty string (""), or undefined.

The following code shows examples of the && (logical AND) operator.

The following code shows examples of the || (logical OR) operator.

The following code shows examples of the ! (logical NOT) operator.

Short-circuit evaluation

As logical expressions are evaluated left to right, they are tested for possible "short-circuit" evaluation using the following rules:

false && anything is short-circuit evaluated to false.
true || anything is short-circuit evaluated to true.

The rules of logic guarantee that these evaluations are always correct. Note that the anything part of the above expressions is not evaluated, so any side effects of doing so do not take effect.

In addition to the comparison operators, which can be used on string values, the concatenation operator (+) concatenates two string values together, returning another string that is the union of the two operand strings.

For example,

The shorthand assignment operator += can also be used to concatenate strings.

The conditional operator is the only JavaScript operator that takes three operands. The operator can have one of two values based on a condition. The syntax is:

If condition is true, the operator has the value of val1 . Otherwise it has the value of val2 . You can use the conditional operator anywhere you would use a standard operator.

This statement assigns the value "adult" to the variable status if age is eighteen or more. Otherwise, it assigns the value "minor" to status .

The comma operator ( , ) simply evaluates both of its operands and returns the value of the last operand. This operator is primarily used inside a for loop, to allow multiple variables to be updated each time through the loop.

For example, if a is a 2-dimensional array with 10 elements on a side, the following code uses the comma operator to update two variables at once. The code prints the values of the diagonal elements in the array:

A unary operation is an operation with only one operand.

The delete operator deletes an object, an object's property, or an element at a specified index in an array. The syntax is:

where objectName is the name of an object, property is an existing property, and index is an integer representing the location of an element in an array.

The fourth form is legal only within a with statement, to delete a property from an object.

You can use the delete operator to delete variables declared implicitly but not those declared with the var statement.

If the delete operator succeeds, it sets the property or element to undefined . The delete operator returns true if the operation is possible; it returns false if the operation is not possible.

Deleting array elements

When you delete an array element, the array length is not affected. For example, if you delete a[3] , a[4] is still a[4] and a[3] is undefined.

When the delete operator removes an array element, that element is no longer in the array. In the following example, trees[3] is removed with delete . However, trees[3] is still addressable and returns undefined .

If you want an array element to exist but have an undefined value, use the undefined keyword instead of the delete operator. In the following example, trees[3] is assigned the value undefined , but the array element still exists:

The typeof operator is used in either of the following ways:

The typeof operator returns a string indicating the type of the unevaluated operand. operand is the string, variable, keyword, or object for which the type is to be returned. The parentheses are optional.

Suppose you define the following variables:

The typeof operator returns the following results for these variables:

For the keywords true and null , the typeof operator returns the following results:

For a number or string, the typeof operator returns the following results:

For property values, the typeof operator returns the type of value the property contains:

For methods and functions, the typeof operator returns results as follows:

For predefined objects, the typeof operator returns results as follows:

The void operator is used in either of the following ways:

The void operator specifies an expression to be evaluated without returning a value. expression is a JavaScript expression to evaluate. The parentheses surrounding the expression are optional, but it is good style to use them.

You can use the void operator to specify an expression as a hypertext link. The expression is evaluated but is not loaded in place of the current document.

The following code creates a hypertext link that does nothing when the user clicks it. When the user clicks the link, void(0) evaluates to undefined , which has no effect in JavaScript.

The following code creates a hypertext link that submits a form when the user clicks it.

Relational operators

A relational operator compares its operands and returns a Boolean value based on whether the comparison is true.

The in operator returns true if the specified property is in the specified object. The syntax is:

where propNameOrNumber is a string or numeric expression representing a property name or array index, and objectName is the name of an object.

The following examples show some uses of the in operator.

The instanceof operator returns true if the specified object is of the specified object type. The syntax is:

where objectName is the name of the object to compare to objectType , and objectType is an object type, such as Date or Array .

Use instanceof when you need to confirm the type of an object at runtime. For example, when catching exceptions, you can branch to different exception-handling code depending on the type of exception thrown.

For example, the following code uses instanceof to determine whether theDay is a Date object. Because theDay is a Date object, the statements in the if statement execute.

The precedence of operators determines the order they are applied when evaluating an expression. You can override operator precedence by using parentheses.

The following table describes the precedence of operators, from highest to lowest.

A more detailed version of this table, complete with links to additional details about each operator, may be found in JavaScript Reference .

Expressions

An expression is any valid unit of code that resolves to a value.

Every syntactically valid expression resolves to some value but conceptually, there are two types of expressions: with side effects (for example: those that assign value to a variable) and those that in some sense evaluates and therefore resolves to value.

The expression x = 7 is an example of the first type. This expression uses the = operator to assign the value seven to the variable x . The expression itself evaluates to seven.

The code 3 + 4 is an example of the second expression type. This expression uses the + operator to add three and four together without assigning the result, seven, to a variable. JavaScript has the following expression categories:

Arithmetic: evaluates to a number, for example 3.14159. (Generally uses arithmetic operators .)
String: evaluates to a character string, for example, "Fred" or "234". (Generally uses string operators .)
Logical: evaluates to true or false. (Often involves logical operators .)
Primary expressions: Basic keywords and general expressions in JavaScript.
Left-hand-side expressions: Left values are the destination of an assignment.

Primary expressions

Basic keywords and general expressions in JavaScript.

Use the this keyword to refer to the current object. In general, this refers to the calling object in a method. Use this either with the dot or the bracket notation:

Suppose a function called validate validates an object's value property, given the object and the high and low values:

You could call validate in each form element's onChange event handler, using this to pass it the form element, as in the following example:

Grouping operator

The grouping operator ( ) controls the precedence of evaluation in expressions. For example, you can override multiplication and division first, then addition and subtraction to evaluate addition first.

Comprehensions

Comprehensions are an experimental JavaScript feature, targeted to be included in a future ECMAScript version. There are two versions of comprehensions:

Comprehensions exist in many programming languages and allow you to quickly assemble a new array based on an existing one, for example.

Left values are the destination of an assignment.

You can use the new operator to create an instance of a user-defined object type or of one of the built-in object types. Use new as follows:

The super keyword is used to call functions on an object's parent. It is useful with classes to call the parent constructor, for example.

Spread operator

The spread operator allows an expression to be expanded in places where multiple arguments (for function calls) or multiple elements (for array literals) are expected.

Example: Today if you have an array and want to create a new array with the existing one being part of it, the array literal syntax is no longer sufficient and you have to fall back to imperative code, using a combination of push , splice , concat , etc. With spread syntax this becomes much more succinct:

Similarly, the spread operator works with function calls:

Document Tags and Contributors

l10n:priority
JavaScript basics
JavaScript first steps
JavaScript building blocks
Introducing JavaScript objects
Introduction
Grammar and types
Control flow and error handling
Loops and iteration
Numbers and dates
Text formatting
Regular expressions
Indexed collections
Keyed collections
Working with objects
Details of the object model
Iterators and generators
Meta programming
A re-introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript data structures
Equality comparisons and sameness
Inheritance and the prototype chain
Strict mode
JavaScript typed arrays
Memory Management
Concurrency model and Event Loop
References:
ArrayBuffer
AsyncFunction
Float32Array
Float64Array
GeneratorFunction
InternalError
Intl.Collator
Intl.DateTimeFormat
Intl.NumberFormat
ParallelArray
ReferenceError
SIMD.Bool16x8
SIMD.Bool32x4
SIMD.Bool64x2
SIMD.Bool8x16
SIMD.Float32x4
SIMD.Float64x2
SIMD.Int16x8
SIMD.Int32x4
SIMD.Int8x16
SIMD.Uint16x8
SIMD.Uint32x4
SIMD.Uint8x16
SharedArrayBuffer
StopIteration
SyntaxError
Uint16Array
Uint32Array
Uint8ClampedArray
WebAssembly
decodeURI()
decodeURIComponent()
encodeURI()
encodeURIComponent()
parseFloat()
Array comprehensions
Conditional (ternary) Operator
Destructuring assignment
Expression closures
Generator comprehensions
Legacy generator function expression
Logical Operators
Object initializer
Property accessors
Spread syntax
async function expression
class expression
delete operator
function expression
function* expression
in operator
new operator
void operator
Legacy generator function
async function
for each...in
function declaration
try...catch
Arguments object
Arrow functions
Default parameters
Method definitions
Rest parameters
constructor
element loaded from a different domain for which you violated the same-origin policy.">Error: Permission denied to access property "x"
InternalError: too much recursion
RangeError: argument is not a valid code point
RangeError: invalid array length
RangeError: invalid date
RangeError: precision is out of range
RangeError: radix must be an integer
RangeError: repeat count must be less than infinity
RangeError: repeat count must be non-negative
ReferenceError: "x" is not defined
ReferenceError: assignment to undeclared variable "x"
ReferenceError: can't access lexical declaration`X' before initialization
ReferenceError: deprecated caller or arguments usage
ReferenceError: invalid assignment left-hand side
ReferenceError: reference to undefined property "x"
SyntaxError: "0"-prefixed octal literals and octal escape seq. are deprecated
SyntaxError: "use strict" not allowed in function with non-simple parameters
SyntaxError: "x" is a reserved identifier
SyntaxError: JSON.parse: bad parsing
SyntaxError: Malformed formal parameter
SyntaxError: Unexpected token
SyntaxError: Using //@ to indicate sourceURL pragmas is deprecated. Use //# instead
SyntaxError: a declaration in the head of a for-of loop can't have an initializer
SyntaxError: applying the 'delete' operator to an unqualified name is deprecated
SyntaxError: for-in loop head declarations may not have initializers
SyntaxError: function statement requires a name
SyntaxError: identifier starts immediately after numeric literal
SyntaxError: illegal character
SyntaxError: invalid regular expression flag "x"
SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list
SyntaxError: missing ) after condition
SyntaxError: missing : after property id
SyntaxError: missing ; before statement
SyntaxError: missing = in const declaration
SyntaxError: missing ] after element list
SyntaxError: missing formal parameter
SyntaxError: missing name after . operator
SyntaxError: missing variable name
SyntaxError: missing } after function body
SyntaxError: missing } after property list
SyntaxError: redeclaration of formal parameter "x"
SyntaxError: return not in function
SyntaxError: test for equality (==) mistyped as assignment (=)?
SyntaxError: unterminated string literal
TypeError: "x" has no properties
TypeError: "x" is (not) "y"
TypeError: "x" is not a constructor
TypeError: "x" is not a function
TypeError: "x" is not a non-null object
TypeError: "x" is read-only
TypeError: More arguments needed
TypeError: can't access dead object
TypeError: can't define property "x": "obj" is not extensible
TypeError: can't delete non-configurable array element
TypeError: can't redefine non-configurable property "x"
TypeError: cyclic object value
TypeError: invalid 'in' operand "x"
TypeError: invalid Array.prototype.sort argument
TypeError: invalid arguments
TypeError: invalid assignment to const "x"
TypeError: property "x" is non-configurable and can't be deleted
TypeError: setting getter-only property "x"
TypeError: variable "x" redeclares argument
URIError: malformed URI sequence
Warning: -file- is being assigned a //# sourceMappingURL, but already has one
Warning: 08/09 is not a legal ECMA-262 octal constant
Warning: Date.prototype.toLocaleFormat is deprecated
Warning: JavaScript 1.6's for-each-in loops are deprecated
Warning: String.x is deprecated; use String.prototype.x instead
Warning: expression closures are deprecated
Warning: unreachable code after return statement
JavaScript technologies overview
Lexical grammar
Enumerability and ownership of properties
Iteration protocols
Transitioning to strict mode
Template literals
Deprecated features
ECMAScript 2015 support in Mozilla
ECMAScript 5 support in Mozilla
ECMAScript Next support in Mozilla
Firefox JavaScript changelog
New in JavaScript 1.1
New in JavaScript 1.2
New in JavaScript 1.3
New in JavaScript 1.4
New in JavaScript 1.5
New in JavaScript 1.6
New in JavaScript 1.7
New in JavaScript 1.8
New in JavaScript 1.8.1
New in JavaScript 1.8.5
Documentation:
All pages index
Methods index
Properties index
Pages tagged "JavaScript"
JavaScript doc status
The MDN project

Learn C practically and Get Certified .

C Flow Control

C if...else
C while Loop
C break and continue
C switch...case
C Programming goto
Control Flow Examples

C Functions

C Programming Functions
C User-defined Functions
C Function Types
C Recursion
C Storage Class
C Function Examples
C Programming Arrays
C Multi-dimensional Arrays
C Arrays & Function
C Programming Pointers
C Pointers & Arrays
C Pointers And Functions
C Memory Allocation
Array & Pointer Examples

C Programming Strings

C Programming String
C String Functions
C String Examples

Structure And Union

C Structure
C Struct & Pointers
C Struct & Function
C struct Examples

C Programming Files

C Files Input/Output
C Files Examples

Additional Topics

C Enumeration
C Preprocessors
C Standard Library
C Programming Examples

Bitwise Operators in C Programming

C Precedence And Associativity Of Operators

Compute Quotient and Remainder
Find the Size of int, float, double and char

C if...else Statement

Make a Simple Calculator Using switch...case

C Programming Operators

An operator is a symbol that operates on a value or a variable. For example: + is an operator to perform addition.

C has a wide range of operators to perform various operations.

C Arithmetic Operators

An arithmetic operator performs mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division etc on numerical values (constants and variables).

Example 1: Arithmetic Operators

The operators + , - and * computes addition, subtraction, and multiplication respectively as you might have expected.

In normal calculation, 9/4 = 2.25 . However, the output is 2 in the program.

It is because both the variables a and b are integers. Hence, the output is also an integer. The compiler neglects the term after the decimal point and shows answer 2 instead of 2.25 .

The modulo operator % computes the remainder. When a=9 is divided by b=4 , the remainder is 1 . The % operator can only be used with integers.

Suppose a = 5.0 , b = 2.0 , c = 5 and d = 2 . Then in C programming,

C Increment and Decrement Operators

C programming has two operators increment ++ and decrement -- to change the value of an operand (constant or variable) by 1.

Increment ++ increases the value by 1 whereas decrement -- decreases the value by 1. These two operators are unary operators, meaning they only operate on a single operand.

Example 2: Increment and Decrement Operators

Here, the operators ++ and -- are used as prefixes. These two operators can also be used as postfixes like a++ and a-- . Visit this page to learn more about how increment and decrement operators work when used as postfix .

C Assignment Operators

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

Example 3: Assignment Operators

C relational operators.

A relational operator checks the relationship between two operands. If the relation is true, it returns 1; if the relation is false, it returns value 0.

Relational operators are used in decision making and loops .

Example 4: Relational Operators

C logical operators.

An expression containing logical operator returns either 0 or 1 depending upon whether expression results true or false. Logical operators are commonly used in decision making in C programming .

Example 5: Logical Operators

Explanation of logical operator program

(a == b) && (c > 5) evaluates to 1 because both operands (a == b) and (c > b) is 1 (true).
(a == b) && (c < b) evaluates to 0 because operand (c < b) is 0 (false).
(a == b) || (c < b) evaluates to 1 because (a = b) is 1 (true).
(a != b) || (c < b) evaluates to 0 because both operand (a != b) and (c < b) are 0 (false).
!(a != b) evaluates to 1 because operand (a != b) is 0 (false). Hence, !(a != b) is 1 (true).
!(a == b) evaluates to 0 because (a == b) is 1 (true). Hence, !(a == b) is 0 (false).

C Bitwise Operators

During computation, mathematical operations like: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc are converted to bit-level which makes processing faster and saves power.

Bitwise operators are used in C programming to perform bit-level operations.

Visit bitwise operator in C to learn more.

Other Operators

Comma operator.

Comma operators are used to link related expressions together. For example:

The sizeof operator

The sizeof is a unary operator that returns the size of data (constants, variables, array, structure, etc).

Example 6: sizeof Operator

Other operators such as ternary operator ?: , reference operator & , dereference operator * and member selection operator -> will be discussed in later tutorials.

Arithmetic Operators
Increment and Decrement Operators
Assignment Operators
Relational Operators
Logical Operators
sizeof Operator

Video: Arithmetic Operators in C

Sorry about that.

4.5: Assignment Operator

Last updated
Save as PDF
Page ID 10258

Kenneth Leroy Busbee
Houston Community College via OpenStax CNX

The assignment operator allows us to change the value of a modifiable data object (for beginning programmers this typically means a variable). It is associated with the concept of moving a value into the storage location (again usually a variable). Within C++ programming language the symbol used is the equal symbol. But bite your tongue, when you see the = symbol you need to start thinking: assignment. The assignment operator has two operands. The one to the left of the operator is usually an identifier name for a variable. The one to the right of the operator is a value.

The value 21 is moved to the memory location for the variable named: age. Another way to say it: age is assigned the value 21.

The item to the right of the assignment operator is an expression. The expression will be evaluated and the answer is 14. The value 14 would assigned to the variable named: total_cousins.

The expression to the right of the assignment operator contains some identifier names. The program would fetch the values stored in those variables; add them together and get a value of 44; then assign the 44 to the total_students variable.

Definitions

Java Arrays
Java Strings
Java Collection
Java 8 Tutorial
Java Multithreading
Java Exception Handling
Java Programs
Java Project
Java Collections Interview
Java Interview Questions
Spring Boot
Java Tutorial

Overview of Java

Introduction to Java
The Complete History of Java Programming Language
C++ vs Java vs Python
How to Download and Install Java for 64 bit machine?
Setting up the environment in Java
How to Download and Install Eclipse on Windows?
JDK in Java
How JVM Works - JVM Architecture?
Differences between JDK, JRE and JVM
Just In Time Compiler
Difference between JIT and JVM in Java
Difference between Byte Code and Machine Code
How is Java platform independent?

Basics of Java

Java Basic Syntax
Java Hello World Program
Java Data Types
Primitive data type vs. Object data type in Java with Examples
Java Identifiers

Operators in Java

Java Variables
Scope of Variables In Java

Wrapper Classes in Java

Input/output in java.

How to Take Input From User in Java?
Scanner Class in Java
Java.io.BufferedReader Class in Java
Difference Between Scanner and BufferedReader Class in Java
Ways to read input from console in Java
System.out.println in Java
Difference between print() and println() in Java
Formatted Output in Java using printf()
Fast I/O in Java in Competitive Programming

Flow Control in Java

Decision Making in Java (if, if-else, switch, break, continue, jump)
Java if statement with Examples
Java if-else
Java if-else-if ladder with Examples
Loops in Java
For Loop in Java
Java while loop with Examples
Java do-while loop with Examples
For-each loop in Java
Continue Statement in Java
Break statement in Java
Usage of Break keyword in Java
return keyword in Java
Java Arithmetic Operators with Examples
Java Unary Operator with Examples

Java Assignment Operators with Examples

Java Relational Operators with Examples
Java Logical Operators with Examples
Java Ternary Operator with Examples
Bitwise Operators in Java
Strings in Java
String class in Java
Java.lang.String class in Java | Set 2
Why Java Strings are Immutable?
StringBuffer class in Java
StringBuilder Class in Java with Examples
String vs StringBuilder vs StringBuffer in Java
StringTokenizer Class in Java
StringTokenizer Methods in Java with Examples | Set 2
StringJoiner Class in Java
Arrays in Java
Arrays class in Java
Multidimensional Arrays in Java
Different Ways To Declare And Initialize 2-D Array in Java
Jagged Array in Java
Final Arrays in Java
Reflection Array Class in Java
util.Arrays vs reflect.Array in Java with Examples

OOPS in Java

Object Oriented Programming (OOPs) Concept in Java
Why Java is not a purely Object-Oriented Language?
Classes and Objects in Java
Naming Conventions in Java
Java Methods

Access Modifiers in Java

Java Constructors
Four Main Object Oriented Programming Concepts of Java

Inheritance in Java

Abstraction in java, encapsulation in java, polymorphism in java, interfaces in java.

'this' reference in Java
Inheritance and Constructors in Java
Java and Multiple Inheritance
Interfaces and Inheritance in Java
Association, Composition and Aggregation in Java
Comparison of Inheritance in C++ and Java
abstract keyword in java
Abstract Class in Java
Difference between Abstract Class and Interface in Java
Control Abstraction in Java with Examples
Difference Between Data Hiding and Abstraction in Java
Difference between Abstraction and Encapsulation in Java with Examples
Difference between Inheritance and Polymorphism
Dynamic Method Dispatch or Runtime Polymorphism in Java
Difference between Compile-time and Run-time Polymorphism in Java

Constructors in Java

Copy Constructor in Java
Constructor Overloading in Java
Constructor Chaining In Java with Examples
Private Constructors and Singleton Classes in Java

Methods in Java

Static methods vs Instance methods in Java
Abstract Method in Java with Examples
Overriding in Java
Method Overloading in Java
Difference Between Method Overloading and Method Overriding in Java
Differences between Interface and Class in Java
Functional Interfaces in Java
Nested Interface in Java
Marker interface in Java
Comparator Interface in Java with Examples
Need of Wrapper Classes in Java
Different Ways to Create the Instances of Wrapper Classes in Java
Character Class in Java
Java.Lang.Byte class in Java
Java.Lang.Short class in Java
Java.lang.Integer class in Java
Java.Lang.Long class in Java
Java.Lang.Float class in Java
Java.Lang.Double Class in Java
Java.lang.Boolean Class in Java
Autoboxing and Unboxing in Java
Type conversion in Java with Examples

Keywords in Java

Java Keywords
Important Keywords in Java
Super Keyword in Java
final Keyword in Java
static Keyword in Java
enum in Java
transient keyword in Java
volatile Keyword in Java
final, finally and finalize in Java
Public vs Protected vs Package vs Private Access Modifier in Java
Access and Non Access Modifiers in Java

Memory Allocation in Java

Java Memory Management
How are Java objects stored in memory?
Stack vs Heap Memory Allocation
How many types of memory areas are allocated by JVM?
Garbage Collection in Java
Types of JVM Garbage Collectors in Java with implementation details
Memory leaks in Java
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) Stack Area

Classes of Java

Understanding Classes and Objects in Java
Singleton Method Design Pattern in Java
Object Class in Java
Inner Class in Java
Throwable Class in Java with Examples

Packages in Java

Packages In Java
How to Create a Package in Java?
Java.util Package in Java
Java.lang package in Java
Java.io Package in Java
Java Collection Tutorial

Exception Handling in Java

Exceptions in Java
Types of Exception in Java with Examples
Checked vs Unchecked Exceptions in Java
Java Try Catch Block
Flow control in try catch finally in Java
throw and throws in Java
User-defined Custom Exception in Java
Chained Exceptions in Java
Null Pointer Exception In Java
Exception Handling with Method Overriding in Java
Multithreading in Java
Lifecycle and States of a Thread in Java
Java Thread Priority in Multithreading
Main thread in Java
Java.lang.Thread Class in Java
Runnable interface in Java
Naming a thread and fetching name of current thread in Java
What does start() function do in multithreading in Java?
Difference between Thread.start() and Thread.run() in Java
Thread.sleep() Method in Java With Examples
Synchronization in Java
Importance of Thread Synchronization in Java
Method and Block Synchronization in Java
Lock framework vs Thread synchronization in Java
Difference Between Atomic, Volatile and Synchronized in Java
Deadlock in Java Multithreading
Deadlock Prevention And Avoidance
Difference Between Lock and Monitor in Java Concurrency
Reentrant Lock in Java

File Handling in Java

Java.io.File Class in Java
Java Program to Create a New File
Different ways of Reading a text file in Java
Java Program to Write into a File
Delete a File Using Java
File Permissions in Java
FileWriter Class in Java
Java.io.FileDescriptor in Java
Java.io.RandomAccessFile Class Method | Set 1
Regular Expressions in Java
Regex Tutorial - How to write Regular Expressions?
Matcher pattern() method in Java with Examples
Pattern pattern() method in Java with Examples
Quantifiers in Java
java.lang.Character class methods | Set 1
Java IO : Input-output in Java with Examples
Java.io.Reader class in Java
Java.io.Writer Class in Java
Java.io.FileInputStream Class in Java
FileOutputStream in Java
Java.io.BufferedOutputStream class in Java
Java Networking
TCP/IP Model
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
Differences between IPv4 and IPv6
Difference between Connection-oriented and Connection-less Services
Socket Programming in Java
java.net.ServerSocket Class in Java
URL Class in Java with Examples

JDBC - Java Database Connectivity

Introduction to JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)
JDBC Drivers
Establishing JDBC Connection in Java
Types of Statements in JDBC
JDBC Tutorial
Java 8 Features - Complete Tutorial

Operators constitute the basic building block of any programming language. Java too provides many types of operators which can be used according to the need to perform various calculations and functions, be it logical, arithmetic, relational, etc. They are classified based on the functionality they provide.

Types of Operators:

Arithmetic Operators
Unary Operators
Assignment Operator
Relational Operators
Logical Operators
Ternary Operator
Bitwise Operators
Shift Operators

This article explains all that one needs to know regarding Assignment Operators.

Assignment Operators

These operators are used to assign values to a variable. The left side operand of the assignment operator is a variable, and the right side operand of the assignment operator is a value. The value on the right side must be of the same data type of the operand on the left side. Otherwise, the compiler will raise an error. This means that the assignment operators have right to left associativity, i.e., the value given on the right-hand side of the operator is assigned to the variable on the left. Therefore, the right-hand side value must be declared before using it or should be a constant. The general format of the assignment operator is,

Types of Assignment Operators in Java

The Assignment Operator is generally of two types. They are:

1. Simple Assignment Operator: The Simple Assignment Operator is used with the “=” sign where the left side consists of the operand and the right side consists of a value. The value of the right side must be of the same data type that has been defined on the left side.

2. Compound Assignment Operator: The Compound Operator is used where +,-,*, and / is used along with the = operator.

Let’s look at each of the assignment operators and how they operate:

1. (=) operator:

This is the most straightforward assignment operator, which is used to assign the value on the right to the variable on the left. This is the basic definition of an assignment operator and how it functions.

Syntax:

Example:

2. (+=) operator:

This operator is a compound of ‘+’ and ‘=’ operators. It operates by adding the current value of the variable on the left to the value on the right and then assigning the result to the operand on the left.

Note: The compound assignment operator in Java performs implicit type casting. Let’s consider a scenario where x is an int variable with a value of 5. int x = 5; If you want to add the double value 4.5 to the integer variable x and print its value, there are two methods to achieve this: Method 1: x = x + 4.5 Method 2: x += 4.5 As per the previous example, you might think both of them are equal. But in reality, Method 1 will throw a runtime error stating the “i ncompatible types: possible lossy conversion from double to int “, Method 2 will run without any error and prints 9 as output.

Reason for the Above Calculation

Method 1 will result in a runtime error stating “incompatible types: possible lossy conversion from double to int.” The reason is that the addition of an int and a double results in a double value. Assigning this double value back to the int variable x requires an explicit type casting because it may result in a loss of precision. Without the explicit cast, the compiler throws an error. Method 2 will run without any error and print the value 9 as output. The compound assignment operator += performs an implicit type conversion, also known as an automatic narrowing primitive conversion from double to int . It is equivalent to x = (int) (x + 4.5) , where the result of the addition is explicitly cast to an int . The fractional part of the double value is truncated, and the resulting int value is assigned back to x . It is advisable to use Method 2 ( x += 4.5 ) to avoid runtime errors and to obtain the desired output.

Same automatic narrowing primitive conversion is applicable for other compound assignment operators as well, including -= , *= , /= , and %= .

3. (-=) operator:

This operator is a compound of ‘-‘ and ‘=’ operators. It operates by subtracting the variable’s value on the right from the current value of the variable on the left and then assigning the result to the operand on the left.

4. (*=) operator:

This operator is a compound of ‘*’ and ‘=’ operators. It operates by multiplying the current value of the variable on the left to the value on the right and then assigning the result to the operand on the left.

5. (/=) operator:

This operator is a compound of ‘/’ and ‘=’ operators. It operates by dividing the current value of the variable on the left by the value on the right and then assigning the quotient to the operand on the left.

6. (%=) operator:

This operator is a compound of ‘%’ and ‘=’ operators. It operates by dividing the current value of the variable on the left by the value on the right and then assigning the remainder to the operand on the left.

Please Login to comment...

Java-Operators
10 Best HuggingChat Alternatives and Competitors
Best Free Android Apps for Podcast Listening
Google AI Model: Predicts Floods 7 Days in Advance
Who is Devika AI? India's 'AI coder', an alternative to Devin AI
30 OOPs Interview Questions and Answers (2024)

Improve your Coding Skills with Practice

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

Java Tutorial

Java methods, java classes, java file handling, java how to, java reference, java examples, java operators.

Operators are used to perform operations on variables and values.

In the example below, we use the + operator to add together two values:

Try it Yourself »

Although the + operator is often used to add together two values, like in the example above, it can also be used to add together a variable and a value, or a variable and another variable:

Java divides the operators into the following groups:

Arithmetic operators
Assignment operators
Comparison operators
Logical operators
Bitwise operators

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to perform common mathematical operations.

Java Assignment Operators

Assignment operators are used to assign values to variables.

In the example below, we use the assignment operator ( = ) to assign the value 10 to a variable called x :

The addition assignment operator ( += ) adds a value to a variable:

A list of all assignment operators:

Java Comparison Operators

Comparison operators are used to compare two values (or variables). This is important in programming, because it helps us to find answers and make decisions.

The return value of a comparison is either true or false . These values are known as Boolean values , and you will learn more about them in the Booleans and If..Else chapter.

In the following example, we use the greater than operator ( > ) to find out if 5 is greater than 3:

Java Logical Operators

You can also test for true or false values with logical operators.

Logical operators are used to determine the logic between variables or values:

Java Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators are used to perform binary logic with the bits of an integer or long integer.

Note: The Bitwise examples above use 4-bit unsigned examples, but Java uses 32-bit signed integers and 64-bit signed long integers. Because of this, in Java, ~5 will not return 10. It will return -6. ~00000000000000000000000000000101 will return 11111111111111111111111111111010

In Java, 9 >> 1 will not return 12. It will return 4. 00000000000000000000000000001001 >> 1 will return 00000000000000000000000000000100

Test Yourself With Exercises

Multiply 10 with 5 , and print the result.

Start the Exercise

COLOR PICKER

Report Error

If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, do not hesitate to send us an e-mail:

[email protected]