An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical manipulations. C++ is rich in built-in operators and provides the following types of operators:
Arithmetic Operators
Relational Operators
Logical Operators
Bitwise Operators
Assignment Operators
Misc Operators
Arithmetic Operators:
There are following arithmetic operators supported by C++ language:
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|
| + | Adds two operands | A + B will give 30 |
| - | Subtracts second operand from the first | A - B will give -10 |
| * | Multiplies both operands | A * B will give 200 |
| / | Divides numerator by de-numerator | B / A will give 2 |
| % | Modulus Operator and remainder of after an integer division | B % A will give 0 |
| ++ | Increment operator, increases integer value by one | A++ will give 11 |
| -- | Decrement operator, decreases integer value by one | A-- will give 9 |
Relational Operators:
There are following relational operators supported by C++ language
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|
| == | Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if yes then condition becomes true. | (A == B) is not true. |
| != | Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if values are not equal then condition becomes true. | (A != B) is true. |
| > | Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. | (A > B) is not true. |
| < | Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. | (A < B) is true. |
| >= | Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. | (A >= B) is not true. |
| <= | Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. | (A <= B) is true. |
Logical Operators:
There are following logical operators supported by C++ language
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|
| && | Called Logical AND operator. If both the operands are non-zero, then condition becomes true. | (A && B) is false. |
| || | Called Logical OR Operator. If any of the two operands is non-zero, then condition becomes true. | (A || B) is true. |
| ! | Called Logical NOT Operator. Use to reverses the logical state of its operand. If a condition is true, then Logical NOT operator will make false. | !(A && B) is true. |
Bitwise Operators:
Bitwise operator works on bits and perform bit-by-bit operation. The truth tables for &, |, and ^ are as follows:
| p | q | p & q | p | q | p ^ q |
|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Assume if A = 60; and B = 13; now in binary format they will be as follows:
A = 0011 1100
B = 0000 1101
-----------------
A&B = 0000 1100
A|B = 0011 1101
A^B = 0011 0001
~A = 1100 0011
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|
| & | Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both operands. | (A & B) will give 12 which is 0000 1100 |
| | | Binary OR Operator copies a bit if it exists in either operand. | (A | B) will give 61 which is 0011 1101 |
| ^ | Binary XOR Operator copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not both. | (A ^ B) will give 49 which is 0011 0001 |
| ~ | Binary Ones Complement Operator is unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits. | (~A ) will give -61 which is 1100 0011 in 2's complement form due to a signed binary number. |
| << | Binary Left Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved left by the number of bits specified by the right operand. | A << 2 will give 240 which is 1111 0000 |
| >> | Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand. | A >> 2 will give 15 which is 0000 1111 |
Assignment Operators:
There are following assignment operators supported by C++ language:
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|
| = | Simple assignment operator, Assigns values from right side operands to left side operand | C = A + B will assign value of A + B into C |
| += | Add AND assignment operator, It adds right operand to the left operand and assign the result to left operand | C += A is equivalent to C = C + A |
| -= | Subtract AND assignment operator, It subtracts right operand from the left operand and assign the result to left operand | C -= A is equivalent to C = C - A |
| *= | Multiply AND assignment operator, It multiplies right operand with the left operand and assign the result to left operand | C *= A is equivalent to C = C * A |
| /= | Divide AND assignment operator, It divides left operand with the right operand and assign the result to left operand | C /= A is equivalent to C = C / A |
| %= | Modulus AND assignment operator, It takes modulus using two operands and assign the result to left operand | C %= A is equivalent to C = C % A |
| <<= | Left shift AND assignment operator | C <<= 2 is same as C = C << 2 |
| >>= | Right shift AND assignment operator | C >>= 2 is same as C = C >> 2 |
| &= | Bitwise AND assignment operator | C &= 2 is same as C = C & 2 |
| ^= | bitwise exclusive OR and assignment operator | C ^= 2 is same as C = C ^ 2 |
| |= | bitwise inclusive OR and assignment operator | C |= 2 is same as C = C | 2 |
Misc Operators
| Operator | Description |
|---|
| sizeof | sizeof operator returns the size of a variable. For example, sizeof(a), where a is integer, will return 4. |
| Condition ? X : Y | Conditional operator. If Condition is true ? then it returns value X : otherwise value Y |
| , | Comma operator causes a sequence of operations to be performed. The value of the entire comma expression is the value of the last expression of the comma-separated list. |
| . (dot) and -> (arrow) | Member operators are used to reference individual members of classes, structures, and unions. |
| Cast | Casting operators convert one data type to another. For example, int(2.2000) would return 2. |
| & | Pointer operator & returns the address of an variable. For example &a; will give actual address of the variable. |
| * | Pointer operator * is pointer to a variable. For example *var; will pointer to a variable var. |
Operators Precedence in C++:
Operator precedence determines the grouping of terms in an expression. This affects how an expression is evaluated. Certain operators have higher precedence than others; for example, the multiplication operator has higher precedence than the addition operator:
For example x = 7 + 3 * 2; here, x is assigned 13, not 20 because operator * has higher precedence than +, so it first gets multiplied with 3*2 and then adds into 7.
| Category | Operator | Associativity |
| Postfix | () [] -> . ++ - - | Left to right |
| Unary | + - ! ~ ++ - - (type)* & sizeof | Right to left |
| Multiplicative | * / % | Left to right |
| Additive | + - | Left to right |
| Shift | << >> | Left to right |
| Relational | < <= > >= | Left to right |
| Equality | == != | Left to right |
| Bitwise AND | & | Left to right |
| Bitwise XOR | ^ | Left to right |
| Bitwise OR | | | Left to right |
| Logical AND | && | Left to right |
| Logical OR | || | Left to right |
| Conditional | ?: | Right to left |
| Assignment | = += -= *= /= %=>>= <<= &= ^= |= | Right to left |
| Comma | , | Left to right |
