Operator precedence and associativity

Two operator characteristics determine how operands group with operators: precedence and associativity. Precedence is the priority for grouping different types of operators with their operands. Associativity is the left-to-right or right-to-left order for grouping operands to operators that have the same precedence. An operator's precedence is meaningful only if other operators with higher or lower precedence are present. Expressions with higher-precedence operators are evaluated first. The grouping of operands can be forced by using parentheses.

For example, in the following statements, the value of 5 is assigned to both a and b because of the right-to-left associativity of the = operator. The value of c is assigned to b first, and then the value of b is assigned to a.

b = 9;
c = 5;
a = b = c;

Because the order of subexpression evaluation is not specified, you can explicitly force the grouping of operands with operators by using parentheses.

In the expression

a + b * c / d

the * and / operations are performed before + because of precedence. b is multiplied by c before it is divided by d because of associativity.

The following tables list the C and C++ language operators in order of precedence and show the direction of associativity for each operator. Operators that have the same rank have the same precedence.

Table 21. Precedence and associativity of postfix operators

Rank	Right associative?	Operator function	Usage
1	yes	global scope resolution	:: name_or_qualified name
1		class or namespace scope resolution	class_or_namespace :: member
2		member selection	object . member
2		member selection	pointer -> member
2		subscripting	pointer [ expr ]
2		function call	expr ( expr_list )
2		value construction	type ( expr_list )
2		postfix increment	lvalue ++
2		postfix decrement	lvalue --
2	yes	type identification	typeid ( type )
2	yes	type identification at run time	typeid ( expr )
2	yes	conversion checked at compile time	static_cast < type > ( expr )
2	yes	conversion checked at run time	dynamic_cast < type > ( expr )
2	yes	unchecked conversion	reinterpret_cast < type > ( expr )
2	yes	const conversion	const_cast < type > ( expr )

Table 22. Precedence and associativity of unary operators

Rank	Right associative?	Operator function	Usage
3	yes	size of object in bytes	sizeof expr
3	yes	size of type in bytes	sizeof ( type )
3	yes	prefix increment	++ lvalue
3	yes	prefix decrement	-- lvalue
3	yes	bitwise negation	~ expr
3	yes	not	! expr
3	yes	unary minus	- expr
3	yes	unary plus	+ expr
3	yes	address of	& lvalue
3	yes	indirection or dereference	* expr
3	yes	create (allocate memory)	new type
3	yes	create (allocate and initialize memory)	new type ( expr_list ) type
3	yes	create (placement)	new type ( expr_list ) type ( expr_list )
3	yes	destroy (deallocate memory)	delete pointer
3	yes	destroy array	delete [ ] pointer
3	yes	type conversion (cast)	( type ) expr

Table 23. Precedence and associativity of binary operators

Rank	Right associative?	Operator function	Usage
4		member selection	object .* ptr_to_member
4		member selection	object ->* ptr_to_member
5		multiplication	expr * expr
5		division	expr / expr
5		modulo (remainder)	expr % expr
6		binary addition	expr + expr
6		binary subtraction	expr - expr
7		bitwise shift left	expr << expr
7		bitwise shift right	expr >> expr
8		less than	expr < expr
8		less than or equal to	expr <= expr
8		greater than	expr > expr
8		greater than or equal to	expr >= expr
9		equal	expr == expr
9		not equal	expr != expr
10		bitwise AND	expr & expr
11		bitwise exclusive OR	expr ^ expr
12		bitwise inclusive OR	expr | expr
13		logical AND	expr && expr
14		logical inclusive OR	expr || expr
15		conditional expression	expr ? expr : expr
16	yes	simple assignment	lvalue = expr
16	yes	multiply and assign	lvalue *= expr
16	yes	divide and assign	lvalue /= expr
16	yes	modulo and assign	lvalue %= expr
16	yes	add and assign	lvalue += expr
16	yes	subtract and assign	lvalue -= expr
16	yes	shift left and assign	lvalue <<= expr
16	yes	shift right and assign	lvalue >>= expr
16	yes	bitwise AND and assign	lvalue &= expr
16	yes	bitwise exclusive OR and assign	lvalue ^= expr
16	yes	bitwise inclusive OR and assign	lvalue |= expr
17	yes	throw expression	throw expr
18		comma (sequencing)	expr , expr