An expression can contain multiple operators – in that case, when two operators share an operand, the order in which the operators are applied is determined by
- operator precedence
- associativity, and
- parentheses
For example,
3 + 4 * 5
is treated as
3 + (4 * 5)
which evaluates to 23 because multiplication * has higher precedence over addition +.
Here is a list of almost all operators in C#, sorted in their order of precedence.
| 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 |
Parenthesis
The implied evaluation order can be changed by using parenthesis. For example,
(3 + 4) * 5
results in 35 because the addition operator is evaluated first, even though the multiplication operator has higher precedence
References
- Docs, M. (2015, July 20). ?: Operator (C# Reference). Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/conditional-operator