operator(7)

👑 NAME 👑

okay so bestie, welcome to operator(7) — this one lives in the Miscellaneous Information Manual (section 7, the vibes section 💅), and it's literally just:

operator — C operator precedence and order of evaluation 🌸

That's it. That's the whole assignment. It's a cheat sheet, and it slays.

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📋 DESCRIPTION 📋

so this page just lays out all the C operators and tells you who goes first when the compiler has to figure out what you meant. precedence + associativity = the group chat hierarchy of operators, no cap. 🔥

Here's the ranking, from "I get a say before everyone" down to "I go last, unfortunately":

• () _Generic() — Associativity: - — Notes: [1]
• [] () . -> ++ -- (type){} — Associativity: left to right — Notes: [2] [3]
• ++ -- & * + - ~ ! _Countof sizeof alignof _Maxof _Minof — Associativity: right to left — Notes: [4]
• (type) — Associativity: right to left
• * / % — Associativity: left to right
• + - — Associativity: left to right
• << >> — Associativity: left to right
• < > <= >= — Associativity: left to right
• == != — Associativity: left to right
• & — Associativity: left to right
• ^ — Associativity: left to right
• | — Associativity: left to right
• && — Associativity: left to right
• || — Associativity: left to right
• ?: — Associativity: right to left
• = *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= &= ^= |= — Associativity: right to left
• , — Associativity: left to right

🌈 Top of the list = highest precedence. Bottom = lowest. Read it like a leaderboard, because that's exactly what it is. ✨

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🎀 the notes, bestie 🎀

the following notes provide further information to the above table 🫶:

• [1] The () at this precedence is the parenthesized expression.
• [2] The () at this precedence is the function call operator.
• [3] The ++ and -- operators at this precedence level are the postfix flavors of the operators.
• [4] The ++ and -- operators at this precedence level are the prefix flavors of the operators.

💀 not the same two symbols showing up in different rows doing completely different jobs. () is out here with main character energy in two separate spots, and ++ -- did it too. iykyk.

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and that's the whole page!! go forth and parenthesize when you're unsure, because precedence is a liar sometimes 😭 🦋

this delightful little dispatch came to you from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2025-12-01 — mwah, periodt 💖🎀✨