C Operator Precedence and Associativity

This page lists all C operators in order of their precedence (highest to lowest). Their associativity indicates in what order operators of equal precedence in an expression are applied.

Operator

Description

Associativity

()
[]
.
->
Parentheses (grouping)
Brackets (array subscript)
Member selection via object name
Member selection via pointer

left-to-right

++  --
+  -
!  ~
(type)
*
&
sizeof
 
 
Unary preincrement/predecrement
Unary plus/minus
Unary logical negation/bitwise complement
Unary cast (change type)
Dereference
Address
Determine size in bytes
right-to-left
*  /  % Multiplication/division/modulus left-to-right
+  - Addition/subtraction left-to-right
<<  >> Bitwise shift left, Bitwise shift right left-to-right
<  <=
>  >=
Relational less than/less than or equal to
Relational greater than/greater than or equal to
left-to-right
==  != Relational is equal to/is not equal to left-to-right
& Bitwise AND left-to-right
^ Bitwise exclusive OR left-to-right
| Bitwise inclusive OR left-to-right
&& Logical AND left-to-right
|| Logical OR left-to-right
?: Ternary conditional right-to-left
=
+=  -=
*=  /=
%=  &=
^=  |=
<<=  >>=
Assignment
Addition/subtraction assignment
Multiplication/division assignment
Modulus/bitwise AND assignment
Bitwise exclusive/inclusive OR assignment
Bitwise shift left/right assignment
right-to-left

,

Comma (separate expressions) left-to-right