Expressions

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Expressions
„ Variables and constants linked with operators
Arithmetic expressions
„ Uses arithmetic operators
„ Can evaluate to any value
Logical expressions
„ Uses relational and logical operators
„ Evaluates to 1 or 0 (true or false) only
Assignment expression
„ Uses assignment operators
„ Evaluates to value depending on assignment

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Arithmetic Operators
„ Binary operators
Addition: +
Subtraction: – Examples
Division: /
2*3 + 5 – 10/3
Multiplication: * –1 + 3*25/5 – 7
Modulus: % distance / time
„ Unary operators 3.14* radius * radius
a * x * x + b*x + c
Plus: +
dividend / divisor
Minus: – 37 % 10

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 Contd.
„ Suppose x and y are two integer variables,
whose values are 13 and 5 respectively

x+y 18
x–y 8
x*y 65
x/y 2
x%y 3

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„ All operators except % can be used with
operands of all of the data types int, float,
double, char (yes! char also! We will see
what it means later)
„ % can be used only with integer operands

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Operator Precedence
„ In decreasing order of priority
1. Parentheses :: ( )
2. Unary minus :: –5
3. Multiplication, Division, and Modulus
4. Addition and Subtraction
„ For operators of the same priority, evaluation is
from left to right as they appear
„ Parenthesis may be used to change the
precedence of operator evaluation

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Examples:
Arithmetic expressions

a+b*c–d/e Î a + (b * c) – (d / e)
a*–b+d%e–f Î a * (– b) + (d % e) – f
a–b+c+d Î (((a – b) + c) + d)
x*y*z Î ((x * y) * z)
a+b+c*d*e Î (a + b) + ((c * d) * e)

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Type of Value of an Arithmetic
Expression
„ If all operands of an operator are integer
(int variables or integer constants), the
value is always integer
Example: 9/5 will be 1, not 1.8
Example:
int a=9, b=5;
printf(“%d”, a/b)
will print 1 and not 1.8

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„ If at least one operand is real, the value is real
Caution: Since floating-point values are rounded to
the number of significant digits permissible, the final
value is an approximation of the final result
Example: 1/ 3.0 * 3.0 may have the value 0.99999
and not 1.0
So checking if 1/ 3.0 * 3.0 is equal to 1.0 may
return false!!

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„ The type of the final value of the
expression can be found by applying these
rules again and again as the expression is
evaluated following operator precedence

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We have a problem!!
int a=10, b=4, c;
float x;
c = a / b;
x = a / b;

The value of c will be 2

The value of x will be 2.0
But we want 2.5 to be stored in x

We will take care of this a little later 11

Assignment Expression
„ Uses the assignment operator (=)
„ General syntax:
variable_name = expression
„ Left of = is called l-value, must be a modifiable
variable
„ Right of = is called r-value, can be any expression
„ Examples:
velocity = 20
b = 15; temp = 12.5
A = A + 10
v=u+f*t
s = u * t + 0.5 * f * t * t 12
Contd.
„ An assignment expression evaluates to a
value same as any other expression
„ Value of an assignment expression is the
value assigned to the l-value
„ Example: value of
a = 3 is 3
b = 2*4 – 6 is 2
n = 2*u + 3*v – w is whatever the arithmetic
expression 2*u + 3*v – w evaluates to given
the current values stored in variables u, v, w
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Contd.
„ Several variables can be assigned the same
value using multiple assignment operators
a = b = c = 5;
flag1 = flag2 = ‘y’;
speed = flow = 0.0;
„ Easy to understand if you remember that
the assignment expression has a value
Multiple assignment operators are right-to-left
associative

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Example
„ Consider a= b = c = 5
Three assignment operators
Rightmost assignment expression is c=5, evaluates
to value 5
Now you have a = b = 5
Rightmost assignment expression is b=5, evaluates
to value 5
Now you have a = 5
Evaluates to value 5
So all three variables store 5, the final value the
assignment expression evaluates to is 5
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Types of l-value and r-value
„ Usually should be the same
„ If not, the type of the r-value will be internally
converted to the type of the l-value, and then
assigned to it
„ Example:
double a;
a = 2*3;
Type of r-value is int and the value is 6
Type of l-value is double, so stores 6.0

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This can cause strange problems
int a;
a = 2*3.2;
„ Type of r-value is float/double and the value is
6.4
„ Type of l-value is int, so internally converted to 6
„ So a stores 6, not the correct result
„ But an int cannot store fractional part anyway
„ So just badly written program
„ Be careful about the types on both sides

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More Assignment Operators
„ +=, -=, *=, /=, %=
„ Operators for special type of assignments
„ a += b is the same as a = a + b
„ Same for -=, *=, /=, and %=
„ Exact same rules apply for multiple
assignment operators

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Contd.
„ Suppose x and y are two integer variables,
whose values are 5 and 10 respectively.

x += y Stores 15 in x
Evaluates to 15
x –= y Stores -5 in x
Evaluates to -5
x *= y Stores 50 in x
Evaluates to 50
x /= y Stores 0 in x
Evaluates to 0
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Logical Expressions
„ Uses relational and logical operators in
addition
„ Informally, specifies a condition which can
be true or false
„ Evaluates to value 0 or 1
0 implies the condition is false
1 implies the condition is true

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Logical Expressions
(count <= 100)
((math+phys+chem)/3 >= 60)
((sex == ’M’) && (age >= 21))
((marks >== 80) && (marks < 90))
((balance > 5000) | | (no_of_trans > 25))
(! (grade == ’A’))

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Relational Operators
„ Used to compare two quantities.

< is less than

> is greater than
<= is less than or equal to
>= is greater than or equal to
== is equal to
!= is not equal to

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Examples
10 > 20 is false, so value is 0
25 < 35.5 is true, so value is 1
12 > (7 + 5) is false, so value is 0
32 != 21 is true, so value is 1
„ When arithmetic expressions are used on either
side of a relational operator, the arithmetic
expressions will be evaluated first and then the
results compared
a + b > c – d is the same as (a+b) > (c+d)
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Logical Operators
Logical AND (&&)
„ Evalutes to 1 if both the operands are non-zero
Logical OR (||)
„ Result is true if at least one of the operands is
non-zero

X Y X && Y X || Y
0 0 0 0
0 non-0 0 non-0
non-0 0 0 non-0
non-0 non-0 non-0 non-0
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Contd
„ Unary negation operator (!)
Single operand
Value is 0 if operand is non-zero
Value is 1 if operand is 0

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Example
„ (4 > 3) && (100 != 200)
4 > 3 is true, so value 1
100 != 200 is true so value 1
Both operands 1 for &&, so final value 1
„ (!10) && (10 + 20 != 200)
10 is non-0, so value !10 is 0
10 + 20 != 200 is true so value 1
Both operands NOT 1 for &&, so final value 0
„ (!10) || (10 + 20 != 200)
Same as above, but at least one value non-0, so
final value 1
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„ a = 3 && b = 4
No parenthesis, so need to look at precedence and
associativity
= has higher precedence than &&
b=4 is an assignment expression, evaluates to 4
a = 3 is an assignment expression, evaluates to 3
Both operands of && are non-0, so final value of the
logical expression is 1
„ Note that changing to b = 0 would have made the
final value 0

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Example: Use of Logical Expressions

void main () {
int i, j;
scanf(“%d%d”,&i,&j);
printf (“%d AND %d = %d, %d OR %d=%d\n”,
i,j,i&&j, i,j, i||j) ;
}

If 3 and 0 are entered from keyboard, output will be

3 AND 0 = 0, 3 OR 0 = 1

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A Special Operator: AddressOf (&)
„ Remember that each variable is stored at a
location with an unique address
„ Putting & before a variable name gives the
address of the variable (where it is stored, not
the value)
„ Can be put before any variable (with no blank in
between)

int a =10;
printf(“Value of a is %d, and address of a is
%d\n”, a, &a);

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More on Arithmetic Expressions

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Recall the earlier problem
int a=10, b=4, c;
float x;
c = a / b;
x = a / b;

The value of c will be 2

The value of x will be 2.0
But we want 2.5 to be stored in x

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Solution: Typecasting
„ Changing the type of a variable during its use
„ General form
(type_name) variable_name
„ Example

x = ((float) a)/ b;

Now x will store 2.5 (type of a is considered to be

float for this operation only, now it is a mixed-
mode expression, so real values are generated)
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„ Not everything can be typecast to anything
float/double should not be typecast to int (as
an int cannot store everything a float/double
can store)
int should not be typecast to char (same
reason)
„ General rule: make sure the final type can
store any value of the initial type

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Example: Finding Average of 2
Integers int a, b;
float avg;
scanf(“%d%d”, &a, &b);
avg = ((float) (a + b))/2;
Wrong program
printf(“%f\n”, avg);

int a, b;
float avg; Correct programs
scanf(“%d%d”, &a, &b);
avg = (a + b)/2; int a, b;
printf(“%f\n”, avg); float avg;
scanf(“%d%d”, &a, &b);
average-1.c avg = (a + b)/2.0;
printf(“%f\n”, avg);
average-2.c 34
More Operators: Increment (++)
and Decrement (--)
„ Both of these are unary operators; they
operate on a single operand
„ The increment operator causes its operand
to be increased by 1
Example: a++, ++count
„ The decrement operator causes its operand
to be decreased by 1.
Example: i--, --distance

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Pre-increment versus post-
increment
„ Operator written before the operand (++i, --i))
Called pre-increment operator (also sometimes
called prefix ++ and prefix --)
Operand will be altered in value before it is utilized
in the program
„ Operator written after the operand (i++, i--)
Called post-increment operator (also sometimes
called postfix ++ and postfix --)
Operand will be altered in value after it is utilized in
the program
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Examples
Initial values :: a = 10; b = 20;

x = 50 + ++a; a = 11, x = 61
x = 50 + a++; x = 60, a = 11
x = a++ + --b; b = 19, x = 29, a = 11
x = a++ – ++a; ??

Called side effects (while calculating some values,

something else gets changed)

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 Operator Class Operators Associativity
Unary postfix++, -- Left to Right
prefix ++, --
Unary Right to Left
─ ! &
Precedence Binary * / % Left to Right
among different Binary + ─ Left to Right
operators (there
are many other Binary < <= > >= Left to Right
operators in C,
some of which we Binary == != Left to Right
will see later)
Binary && Left to Right
Binary || Left to Right
= += ─ =
Assignment Right to Left
*= /= &=
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Statements in a C program
„ Parts of C program that tell the computer what to do
„ Different types
Declaration statements
„ Declares variables etc.

Assignment statement
„ Assignment expression, followed by a ;

Control statements
„ For branching and looping, like if-else, for, while, do-
while (to be seen later)
Input/Output
„ Read/print, like printf/scanf

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Example
Declaration statement

int a, b, larger;
scanf(“%d %d”, &a, &b);
larger = b;
Control Assignment
if (a > b) statement statement
larger = a; Input/Output
statement
printf(“Larger number is %d\n”, larger);

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„ Compound statements
A sequence of statements enclosed within {
and }
Each statement can be an assignment
statement, control statement, input/output
statement, or another compound statement
We will also call it block of statements
sometimes informally

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Example
int n;
scanf(“%d”, &n);
while(1) {
if (n > 0) break;
Compound statement
scanf(“%d”, &n);
}

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