compound assignment operators in c

This browser is no longer supported.

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

C Compound Assignment

6 contributors

The compound-assignment operators combine the simple-assignment operator with another binary operator. Compound-assignment operators perform the operation specified by the additional operator, then assign the result to the left operand. For example, a compound-assignment expression such as

expression1 += expression2

can be understood as

expression1 = expression1 + expression2

However, the compound-assignment expression is not equivalent to the expanded version because the compound-assignment expression evaluates expression1 only once, while the expanded version evaluates expression1 twice: in the addition operation and in the assignment operation.

The operands of a compound-assignment operator must be of integral or floating type. Each compound-assignment operator performs the conversions that the corresponding binary operator performs and restricts the types of its operands accordingly. The addition-assignment ( += ) and subtraction-assignment ( -= ) operators can also have a left operand of pointer type, in which case the right-hand operand must be of integral type. The result of a compound-assignment operation has the value and type of the left operand.

In this example, a bitwise-inclusive-AND operation is performed on n and MASK , and the result is assigned to n . The manifest constant MASK is defined with a #define preprocessor directive.

C Assignment Operators

Was this page helpful?

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

C Data Types

C operators.

C Input and Output
C Control Flow
C Functions
C Preprocessors

C File Handling

C Cheatsheet

C Interview Questions

C Programming Language Tutorial
C Language Introduction
Features of C Programming Language
C Programming Language Standard
C Hello World Program
Compiling a C Program: Behind the Scenes
Tokens in C
Keywords in C

C Variables and Constants

C Variables
Constants in C
Const Qualifier in C
Different ways to declare variable as constant in C
Scope rules in C
Internal Linkage and External Linkage in C
Global Variables in C
Data Types in C
Literals in C
Escape Sequence in C
Integer Promotions in C
Character Arithmetic in C
Type Conversion in C

C Input/Output

Basic Input and Output in C
Format Specifiers in C
printf in C
Scansets in C
Formatted and Unformatted Input/Output functions in C with Examples
Operators in C
Arithmetic Operators in C
Unary operators in C
Relational Operators in C
Bitwise Operators in C
C Logical Operators

Assignment Operators in C

Increment and Decrement Operators in C
Conditional or Ternary Operator (?:) in C
sizeof operator in C
Operator Precedence and Associativity in C

C Control Statements Decision-Making

Decision Making in C (if , if..else, Nested if, if-else-if )
C - if Statement
C if...else Statement
C if else if ladder
Switch Statement in C
Using Range in switch Case in C
while loop in C
do...while Loop in C
For Versus While
Continue Statement in C
Break Statement in C
goto Statement in C
User-Defined Function in C
Parameter Passing Techniques in C
Function Prototype in C
How can I return multiple values from a function?
main Function in C
Implicit return type int in C
Callbacks in C
Nested functions in C
Variadic functions in C
_Noreturn function specifier in C
Predefined Identifier __func__ in C
C Library math.h Functions

C Arrays & Strings

Properties of Array in C
Multidimensional Arrays in C
Initialization of Multidimensional Array in C
Pass Array to Functions in C
How to pass a 2D array as a parameter in C?
What are the data types for which it is not possible to create an array?
How to pass an array by value in C ?
Strings in C
Array of Strings in C
What is the difference between single quoted and double quoted declaration of char array?
C String Functions
Pointer Arithmetics in C with Examples
C - Pointer to Pointer (Double Pointer)
Function Pointer in C
How to declare a pointer to a function?
Pointer to an Array | Array Pointer
Difference between constant pointer, pointers to constant, and constant pointers to constants
Pointer vs Array in C
Dangling, Void , Null and Wild Pointers in C
Near, Far and Huge Pointers in C
restrict keyword in C

C User-Defined Data Types

C Structures
dot (.) Operator in C
Structure Member Alignment, Padding and Data Packing
Flexible Array Members in a structure in C
Bit Fields in C
Difference Between Structure and Union in C
Anonymous Union and Structure in C
Enumeration (or enum) in C

C Storage Classes

Storage Classes in C
extern Keyword in C
Static Variables in C
Initialization of static variables in C
Static functions in C
Understanding "volatile" qualifier in C | Set 2 (Examples)
Understanding "register" keyword in C

C Memory Management

Memory Layout of C Programs
Dynamic Memory Allocation in C using malloc(), calloc(), free() and realloc()
Difference Between malloc() and calloc() with Examples
What is Memory Leak? How can we avoid?
Dynamic Array in C
How to dynamically allocate a 2D array in C?
Dynamically Growing Array in C

C Preprocessor

C Preprocessor Directives
How a Preprocessor works in C?
Header Files in C
What’s difference between header files "stdio.h" and "stdlib.h" ?
How to write your own header file in C?
Macros and its types in C
Interesting Facts about Macros and Preprocessors in C
# and ## Operators in C
How to print a variable name in C?
Multiline macros in C
Variable length arguments for Macros
Branch prediction macros in GCC
typedef versus #define in C
Difference between #define and const in C?
Basics of File Handling in C
C fopen() function with Examples
EOF, getc() and feof() in C
fgets() and gets() in C language
fseek() vs rewind() in C
What is return type of getchar(), fgetc() and getc() ?
Read/Write Structure From/to a File in C
C Program to print contents of file
C program to delete a file
C Program to merge contents of two files into a third file
What is the difference between printf, sprintf and fprintf?
Difference between getc(), getchar(), getch() and getche()

Miscellaneous

time.h header file in C with Examples
Input-output system calls in C | Create, Open, Close, Read, Write
Signals in C language
Program error signals
Socket Programming in C
_Generics Keyword in C
Multithreading in C
C Programming Interview Questions (2024)
Commonly Asked C Programming Interview Questions | Set 1
Commonly Asked C Programming Interview Questions | Set 2
Commonly Asked C Programming Interview Questions | Set 3

Assignment operators are used for assigning value to a variable. The left side operand of the assignment operator is a variable and 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 variable on the left side otherwise the compiler will raise an error.

Different types of assignment operators are shown below:

1. “=”: This is the simplest assignment operator. This operator is used to assign the value on the right to the variable on the left. Example:

2. “+=” : This operator is combination of ‘+’ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first adds the current value of the variable on left to the value on the right and then assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:

If initially value stored in a is 5. Then (a += 6) = 11.

3. “-=” This operator is combination of ‘-‘ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first subtracts the value on the right from the current value of the variable on left and then assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:

If initially value stored in a is 8. Then (a -= 6) = 2.

4. “*=” This operator is combination of ‘*’ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first multiplies the current value of the variable on left to the value on the right and then assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:

If initially value stored in a is 5. Then (a *= 6) = 30.

5. “/=” This operator is combination of ‘/’ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first divides the current value of the variable on left by the value on the right and then assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:

If initially value stored in a is 6. Then (a /= 2) = 3.

Below example illustrates the various Assignment Operators:

Please Login to comment...

C-Operators
cpp-operator
10 Best Free Code Learning Apps for Android in 2024
5 Best AI Tools for Plagiarism Detection 2024
10 Best iMovie Alternatives in 2024
10 Best AI Tools for Sentiment Analysis
30 OOPs Interview Questions and Answers (2024)

Improve your Coding Skills with Practice

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

cppreference.com

Assignment operators.

Assignment operators modify the value of the object.

[ edit ] Definitions

Copy assignment replaces the contents of the object a with a copy of the contents of b ( b is not modified). For class types, this is performed in a special member function, described in copy assignment operator .

For non-class types, copy and move assignment are indistinguishable and are referred to as direct assignment .

Compound assignment replace the contents of the object a with the result of a binary operation between the previous value of a and the value of b .

[ edit ] Assignment operator syntax

The assignment expressions have the form

↑ target-expr must have higher precedence than an assignment expression.
↑ new-value cannot be a comma expression, because its precedence is lower.

[ edit ] Built-in simple assignment operator

For the built-in simple assignment, the object referred to by target-expr is modified by replacing its value with the result of new-value . target-expr must be a modifiable lvalue.

The result of a built-in simple assignment is an lvalue of the type of target-expr , referring to target-expr . If target-expr is a bit-field , the result is also a bit-field.

[ edit ] Assignment from an expression

If new-value is an expression, it is implicitly converted to the cv-unqualified type of target-expr . When target-expr is a bit-field that cannot represent the value of the expression, the resulting value of the bit-field is implementation-defined.

If target-expr and new-value identify overlapping objects, the behavior is undefined (unless the overlap is exact and the type is the same).

In overload resolution against user-defined operators , for every type T , the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:

For every enumeration or pointer to member type T , optionally volatile-qualified, the following function signature participates in overload resolution:

For every pair A1 and A2 , where A1 is an arithmetic type (optionally volatile-qualified) and A2 is a promoted arithmetic type, the following function signature participates in overload resolution:

[ edit ] Built-in compound assignment operator

The behavior of every built-in compound-assignment expression target-expr op = new-value is exactly the same as the behavior of the expression target-expr = target-expr op new-value , except that target-expr is evaluated only once.

The requirements on target-expr and new-value of built-in simple assignment operators also apply. Furthermore:

For + = and - = , the type of target-expr must be an arithmetic type or a pointer to a (possibly cv-qualified) completely-defined object type .
For all other compound assignment operators, the type of target-expr must be an arithmetic type.

In overload resolution against user-defined operators , for every pair A1 and A2 , where A1 is an arithmetic type (optionally volatile-qualified) and A2 is a promoted arithmetic type, the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:

For every pair I1 and I2 , where I1 is an integral type (optionally volatile-qualified) and I2 is a promoted integral type, the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:

For every optionally cv-qualified object type T , the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:

[ edit ] Example

Possible output:

[ edit ] Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

[ edit ] See also

Operator precedence

Operator overloading

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 25 January 2024, at 22:41.
This page has been accessed 410,142 times.
Privacy policy
About cppreference.com
Disclaimers

Introduction to C
Download MinGW GCC C Compiler
Configure MinGW GCC C Compiler
The First C Program
Data Types in C
Variables, Keywords, Constants
If Statement
If Else Statement
Else If Statement
Nested If Statement
Nested If Else Statement
Do-While Loop
Break Statement
Switch Statement
Continue Statement
Goto Statement
Arithmetic Operator in C
Increment Operator in C
Decrement Operator in C
Compound Assignment Operator
Relational Operator in C
Logical Operator in C
Conditional Operator in C
2D array in C
Functions with arguments
Function Return Types
Function Call by Value
Function Call by Reference
Recursion in C
Reading String from console
C strchr() function
C strlen() function
C strupr() function
C strlwr() function
C strcat() function
C strncat() function
C strcpy() function
C strncpy() function
C strcmp() function
C strncmp() function
Structure with array element
Array of structures
Formatted Console I/O functions
scanf() and printf() function
sscanf() and sprintf() function
Unformatted Console I/O functions
getch(), getche(), getchar(), gets()
putch(), putchar(), puts()
Reading a File
Writing a File
Append to a File
Modify a File

+= operator

Add operation.
Assignment of the result of add operation.
Statement i+=2 is equal to i=i+2 , hence 2 will be added to the value of i, which gives us 4.
Finally, the result of addition, 4 is assigned back to i, updating its original value from 2 to 4.

Example with += operator

-= operator.

Subtraction operation.
Assignment of the result of subtract operation.
Statement i-=2 is equal to i=i-2 , hence 2 will be subtracted from the value of i, which gives us 0.
Finally, the result of subtraction i.e. 0 is assigned back to i, updating its value to 0.

Example with -= operator

*= operator.

Multiplication operation.
Assignment of the result of multiplication operation.
Statement i*=2 is equal to i=i*2 , hence 2 will be multiplied with the value of i, which gives us 4.
Finally, the result of multiplication, 4 is assigned back to i, updating its value to 4.

Example with *= operator

/= operator.

Division operation.
Assignment of the result of division operation.
Statement i/=2 is equal to i=i/2 , hence 4 will be divided by the value of i, which gives us 2.
Finally, the result of division i.e. 2 is assigned back to i, updating its value from 4 to 2.

Example with /= operator

Please share this article -.

Please Subscribe

Notifications

Please check our latest addition C#, PYTHON and DJANGO

Assignment Operators In C [ Full Information With Examples ]

Assignment Operators In C

Assignment operators is a binary operator which is used to assign values in a variable , with its right and left sides being a one-one operand. The operand on the left side is variable in which the value is assigned and the right side operands can contain any of the constant, variable, and expression.

The Assignment operator is a lower priority operator. its priority has much lower than the rest of the other operators. Its priority is more than just the comma operator. The priority of all other operators is more than the assignment operator.

We can assign the same value to multiple variables simultaneously by the assignment operator.

x = y = z = 100

Here x, y, and z are initialized to 100.

In C language, the assignment operator can be divided into two categories.

Simple assignment operator
Compound assignment operators

1. Simple Assignment Operator In C

This operator is used to assign left-side values to the right-side operands, simple assignment operators are represented by (=).

2. Compound Assignment Operators In C

Compound Assignment Operators use the old value of a variable to calculate its new value and reassign the value obtained from the calculation to the same variable.

Examples of compound assignment operators are: (Example: + =, – =, * =, / =,% =, & =, ^ =)

Look at these two statements:

Here in this example, adding 5 to the x variable in the second statement is again being assigned to the x variable.

Compound Assignment Operators provide us with the C language to perform such operation even more effecient and in less time.

Syntax of Compound Assignment Operators

Here op can be any arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /,%).

The above statement is equivalent to the following depending on the function:

Let us now know about some important compound assignment operators one by one.

“+ =” -: This operator adds the right operand to the left operand and assigns the output to the left operand.

“- =” -: This operator subtracts the right operand from the left operand and returns the result to the left operand.

“* =” -: This operator multiplies the right operand with the left operand and assigns the result to the left operand.

“/ =” -: This operator splits the left operand with the right operand and assigns the result to the left operand.

“% =” -: This operator takes the modulus using two operands and assigns the result to the left operand.

There are many other assignment operators such as left shift and (<< =) operator, right shift and operator (>> =), bitwise and assignment operator (& =), bitwise OR assignment operator (^ =)

List of Assignment Operators In C

Compound assignment operators

The compound assignment operators consist of a binary operator and the simple assignment operator. They perform the operation of the binary operator on both operands and store the result of that operation into the left operand, which must be a modifiable lvalue.

The following table shows the operand types of compound assignment expressions:

Note that the expression

is equivalent to

The following table lists the compound assignment operators and shows an expression using each operator:

Although the equivalent expression column shows the left operands (from the example column) twice, it is in effect evaluated only once.

Using Compound Assignment Operators in C: A Beginner's Guide

An assignment operator is used for assigning a value to a variable. The most common assignment operator is = (equal). The left side operand of the assignment operator is a variable and 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 variable on the left side otherwise the compiler will raise an error.

The code is a C program that demonstrates the use of compound assignment operators in C. Here is an explanation of each line of the code:

int a=10,b=5; declares two variables a and b of type int and assigns them the values 10 and 5 respectively.
a+=b; is the compound assignment operator +=, it performs a+b and assigns the value to a. It is equivalent to a=a+b.
printf("A : %d",a); prints the value of a which is 15, this is the result after using += operator.
a-=10; is the compound assignment operator -=, it performs a-10 and assigns the value to a. It is equivalent to a=a-10.
printf("\nA : %d",a); prints the value of a which is 5, this is the result after using -= operator.
return 0; The return 0; statement is used to indicate that the main function has completed successfully. The value 0 is returned as the exit status of the program, which indicates a successful execution.

When you run this code, it will perform the compound assignment operation on variables and print the results in the console.

Source Code

List of programs.

C Introduction
Hello World
Basic Addition
Data Types in C
Variables and Literals in C
Arithmetic Operator in C
Example for Arithmetic Operator in C
Assignment Operators in C Program
Relational Operators in C Program
Logical Operators in C Program
Increment and Decrement Operators in C Program
Bitwise Operators in C Program
if Statement in C Program
if else Statement in C Program
else if Statement in C Program
Nested if Statement in C Program
Switch Statement in C Program
Conditional Operator Statement in C Program
School Management in C Program
Library Management in C Program
Find the given number is odd or even in C Program
Check the given number is vowels or not in C Program
Check the given number is Armstrong or not in C Program
Hotel Management in C Program
Goto Statement in C Program
Hotel Management using goto in C Program
While Loop in C Program
Do while Loop in C Program
For Loop in C Program
Nested For Loop in C Program
Break and Continue Statement in C Program
ASCII Values in C Program
Single Dimensional Array in C Program
2D Array in C Program
String Function in C Program
Math Function in C Program
Function in C Program
No Return Without Argument Function in C Program
No Return With Argument Function in C Program
Return Without Argument Function in C Program
Return With Argument Function in C Program
Recursion Function in C Program
Call by Reference Function in C Program
Local Variable in C Program
Global Variable in C Program
Static Variable in C Program
Enumeration or enum in C Program
Single pointer in C Program
Double & Triple pointer in C Program
Pointer Arithmetic in C Program
Pointer Handle Array Values in C Program
Void * Pointer in C Program
Malloc Function in C Program
Calloc Function in C Program
Realloc Function in C Program
Free Function in C Program
Dangling Pointer in C Program
Using Const in Pointer in C Program
Structure in C Program
Local and Global Structure in C Program
Typedef in C Program
Initializing & Accessing the Structure Members in C Program
Access members of structure using pointer in C Program
Structure as function arguments in C Program
Array of Objects Structure in C Program
Union in C Program
Shop Management using Structure and Union in C Program
Input and output functions in C Program
Preprocessor Directives in C Program
Read File in C Program
Write File in C Program
Multiplication tables in C Program
Total no of even and odd numbers in an array in C Program
Count Alphabets Digits and Special Characters in a String in C Program
Convert string to uppercase in C Program
Convert string to lowercase in C Program
Display Fibonacci Sequence in C Program
Greatest of n numbers in an array in C Program

Sample Programs

Switch case in c.

Present Elevator Position
Check Vowel or Consonent
Hotel Management using Swtich Case

Conditional Operators in C

Find Greatest Number
Check Find Smallest Number
Check Number Equal or Not
Check Char. Vowel or Consonent
Check Character Capital or Small

Goto Statement in C

Consecutive Numbers
Print Text Using Goto
Print Odd Numbers
Printing Tables
Printing Sum of Values
Printing Reverse Table
Print Factorial in C

While Loop Example Programs

Print numbers using While Loop
Armstrong Number using While Loop
Print Odd and Even numbers
Print Positive and Negative numbers
Print Prime or Composite Number Upto Limit
Print Prime or Composite Number
Reverse table using While Loop
Print table using While Loop
Covert Decimal to Binary using While Loop

Looping Statements in C

For loop example programs.

Print Value upto limit
Print Number upto limit
Armstrong Number using For Loop
Square Pattern using For Loop
Flag Pattern using For Loop
Diamond Pattern using For Loop
Triangle Facing Downward using For Loop
Triangle Facing upside using For Loop
Right Angle Triangle facing left
Right Angle Triangle facing right
Reverse Number using For Loop
Prime Number using For Loop
Print Number divisible by 7
Print tables using For Loop
Reverse tables using For Loop
Separate odd and even numbers
Check prime or composite number
Separate positive and negative number
For Loop Patterns
Square Pattern Outline using For Loop
Triangle Outline Pattern
Diamond Pattern Outline

Array Examples in C

One dimensional array.

Add Elements to the Array
Arrange array elements in Ascending
Arrange array elements in Descending
Insert an element using Array
Update an element using Array
Delete an element using Array
Interchange an element using Array
Reverse an element using Array
Odd or Even Number using Array
Positive and Negative Numbers using Array
Armstrong Number 100 to 999
Greatest Number using Array
Smallest Number using Array
Print values divisible by 7 using Array
Convert binary to decimal using Array
Convert decimal to binary using Array
Convert decimal to octal using Array

Two Dimensional Array in C

Print Two Dimensional Array
Array Addition in Two-Dimenional Array
Array Subtraction in Two-Dimensional Array
Array Multiplication using Array
Lower Triangular Matrix using Array
Upper Triangluar Matrix using Array
Print Unit Matrix using Array
Check and Print Unit Matrix

String Example Programs in C

Print text using String
String Example
String Comparison in C
String Concatenation in C
String Copy Example in C
Convert Uppercase to Lowercase
Remove Duplicate String
Reverse text using String
Toggle Case using String
Conver text into Capital or Small
Convert Lowercase to Uppercase
Convert text into Ascending Order using
Capitalising the first letter
Check given strings Equal or Not
Copy String using Predefined Function
String Length using Predefined Function
String Length without Predefined Function
Uppercase to Lowercase using Predefined Function
Check Palindrome or Not

Functions Example Programs in C

Addition using return type and arguments
Print marks using return type & arguments
Function with no return and with arguments in c
Print tables without arguments

Trending Categories

Selected Reading
UPSC IAS Exams Notes
Developer's Best Practices
Questions and Answers
Effective Resume Writing
HR Interview Questions
Computer Glossary

Compound Assignment Operators in C++

The compound assignment operators are specified in the form e1 op= e2, where e1 is a modifiable l-value not of const type and e2 is one of the following −

An arithmetic type
A pointer, if op is + or –

The e1 op= e2 form behaves as e1 = e1 op e2, but e1 is evaluated only once.

The following are the compound assignment operators in C++ −

Let's have a look at an example using some of these operators −

This will give the output −

Note that Compound assignment to an enumerated type generates an error message. If the left operand is of a pointer type, the right operand must be of a pointer type or it must be a constant expression that evaluates to 0. If the left operand is of an integral type, the right operand must not be of a pointer type.

Compound assignment operators in C#
Compound assignment operators in Java\n
Assignment Operators in C++
What are assignment operators in C#?
Perl Assignment Operators
Assignment operators in Dart Programming
What are Assignment Operators in JavaScript?
Compound operators in Arduino
What is the difference between = and: = assignment operators?
Passing the Assignment in C++
Airplane Seat Assignment Probability in C++
What is an assignment operator in C#?
Copy constructor vs assignment operator in C++
Ternary Operators in C/C++
Unary operators in C/C++

Kickstart Your Career

Get certified by completing the course

PrepBytes Blog

ONE-STOP RESOURCE FOR EVERYTHING RELATED TO CODING

Sign in to your account

Forgot your password?

Login via OTP

We will send you an one time password on your mobile number

An OTP has been sent to your mobile number please verify it below

Register with PrepBytes

Assignment operator in c.

Last Updated on June 23, 2023 by Prepbytes

This type of operator is employed for transforming and assigning values to variables within an operation. In an assignment operation, the right side represents a value, while the left side corresponds to a variable. It is essential that the value on the right side has the same data type as the variable on the left side. If this requirement is not fulfilled, the compiler will issue an error.

What is Assignment Operator in C language?

In C, the assignment operator serves the purpose of assigning a value to a variable. It is denoted by the equals sign (=) and plays a vital role in storing data within variables for further utilization in code. When using the assignment operator, the value present on the right-hand side is assigned to the variable on the left-hand side. This fundamental operation allows developers to store and manipulate data effectively throughout their programs.

Example of Assignment Operator in C

For example, consider the following line of code:

Types of Assignment Operators in C

Here is a list of the assignment operators that you can find in the C language:

Simple assignment operator (=): This is the basic assignment operator, which assigns the value on the right-hand side to the variable on the left-hand side.

Addition assignment operator (+=): This operator adds the value on the right-hand side to the variable on the left-hand side and assigns the result back to the variable.

x += 3; // Equivalent to x = x + 3; (adds 3 to the current value of "x" and assigns the result back to "x")

Subtraction assignment operator (-=): This operator subtracts the value on the right-hand side from the variable on the left-hand side and assigns the result back to the variable.

x -= 4; // Equivalent to x = x – 4; (subtracts 4 from the current value of "x" and assigns the result back to "x")

* Multiplication assignment operator ( =):** This operator multiplies the value on the right-hand side with the variable on the left-hand side and assigns the result back to the variable.

x = 2; // Equivalent to x = x 2; (multiplies the current value of "x" by 2 and assigns the result back to "x")

Division assignment operator (/=): This operator divides the variable on the left-hand side by the value on the right-hand side and assigns the result back to the variable.

x /= 2; // Equivalent to x = x / 2; (divides the current value of "x" by 2 and assigns the result back to "x")

Bitwise AND assignment (&=): The bitwise AND assignment operator "&=" performs a bitwise AND operation between the value on the left-hand side and the value on the right-hand side. It then assigns the result back to the left-hand side variable.

x &= 3; // Binary: 0011 // After bitwise AND assignment: x = 1 (Binary: 0001)

Bitwise OR assignment (|=): The bitwise OR assignment operator "|=" performs a bitwise OR operation between the value on the left-hand side and the value on the right-hand side. It then assigns the result back to the left-hand side variable.

x |= 3; // Binary: 0011 // After bitwise OR assignment: x = 7 (Binary: 0111)

Bitwise XOR assignment (^=): The bitwise XOR assignment operator "^=" performs a bitwise XOR operation between the value on the left-hand side and the value on the right-hand side. It then assigns the result back to the left-hand side variable.

x ^= 3; // Binary: 0011 // After bitwise XOR assignment: x = 6 (Binary: 0110)

Left shift assignment (<<=): The left shift assignment operator "<<=" shifts the bits of the value on the left-hand side to the left by the number of positions specified by the value on the right-hand side. It then assigns the result back to the left-hand side variable.

x <<= 2; // Binary: 010100 (Shifted left by 2 positions) // After left shift assignment: x = 20 (Binary: 10100)

Right shift assignment (>>=): The right shift assignment operator ">>=" shifts the bits of the value on the left-hand side to the right by the number of positions specified by the value on the right-hand side. It then assigns the result back to the left-hand side variable.

x >>= 2; // Binary: 101 (Shifted right by 2 positions) // After right shift assignment: x = 5 (Binary: 101)

Conclusion The assignment operator in C, denoted by the equals sign (=), is used to assign a value to a variable. It is a fundamental operation that allows programmers to store data in variables for further use in their code. In addition to the simple assignment operator, C provides compound assignment operators that combine arithmetic or bitwise operations with assignment, allowing for concise and efficient code.

FAQs related to Assignment Operator in C

Q1. Can I assign a value of one data type to a variable of another data type? In most cases, assigning a value of one data type to a variable of another data type will result in a warning or error from the compiler. It is generally recommended to assign values of compatible data types to variables.

Q2. What is the difference between the assignment operator (=) and the comparison operator (==)? The assignment operator (=) is used to assign a value to a variable, while the comparison operator (==) is used to check if two values are equal. It is important not to confuse these two operators.

Q3. Can I use multiple assignment operators in a single statement? No, it is not possible to use multiple assignment operators in a single statement. Each assignment operator should be used separately for assigning values to different variables.

Q4. Are there any limitations on the right-hand side value of the assignment operator? The right-hand side value of the assignment operator should be compatible with the data type of the left-hand side variable. If the data types are not compatible, it may lead to unexpected behavior or compiler errors.

Q5. Can I assign the result of an expression to a variable using the assignment operator? Yes, it is possible to assign the result of an expression to a variable using the assignment operator. For example, x = y + z; assigns the sum of y and z to the variable x.

Q6. What happens if I assign a value to an uninitialized variable? Assigning a value to an uninitialized variable will initialize it with the assigned value. However, it is considered good practice to explicitly initialize variables before using them to avoid potential bugs or unintended behavior.