- C Programming Tutorial
- Basics of C
- C - Overview
- C - Features
- C - History
- C - Environment Setup
- C - Program Structure
- C - Hello World
- C - Compilation Process
- C - Comments
- C - Keywords
- C - Identifiers
- C - User Input
- C - Basic Syntax
- C - Data Types
- C - Variables
- C - Integer Promotions
- C - Type Conversion
- C - Type Casting
- C - Booleans
- Constants and Literals in C
- C - Constants
- C - Literals
- C - Escape sequences
- C - Format Specifiers
- Operators in C
- C - Operators
- C - Arithmetic Operators
- C - Relational Operators
- C - Logical Operators
- C - Bitwise Operators
- C - Assignment Operators
- C - Unary Operators
- C - Increment and Decrement Operators
- C - Ternary Operator
- C - sizeof Operator
- C - Operator Precedence
- C - Misc Operators
- Decision Making in C
- C - Decision Making
- C - if statement
- C - if...else statement
- C - nested if statements
- C - switch statement
- C - nested switch statements
- C - While loop
- C - For loop
- C - Do...while loop
- C - Nested loop
- C - Infinite loop
- C - Break Statement
- C - Continue Statement
- C - goto Statement
- Functions in C
- C - Functions
- C - Main Function
- C - Function call by Value
- C - Function call by reference
- C - Nested Functions
- C - Variadic Functions
- C - User-Defined Functions
- C - Callback Function
- C - Return Statement
- C - Recursion
- Scope Rules in C
- C - Scope Rules
- C - Static Variables
- C - Global Variables
- Arrays in C
- C - Properties of Array
- C - Multi-Dimensional Arrays
- C - Passing Arrays to Function
- C - Return Array from Function
- C - Variable Length Arrays
- Pointers in C
- C - Pointers
- C - Pointers and Arrays
- C - Applications of Pointers
- C - Pointer Arithmetics
- C - Array of Pointers
- C - Pointer to Pointer
- C - Passing Pointers to Functions
- C - Return Pointer from Functions
- C - Function Pointers
- C - Pointer to an Array
- C - Pointers to Structures
- C - Chain of Pointers
- C - Pointer vs Array
- C - Character Pointers and Functions
- C - NULL Pointer
- C - void Pointer
- C - Dangling Pointers
- C - Dereference Pointer
- C - Near, Far and Huge Pointers
- C - Initialization of Pointer Arrays
- C - Pointers vs. Multi-dimensional Arrays
- Strings in C
- C - Strings
- C - Array of Strings
- C - Special Characters
- C Structures and Unions
- C - Structures
- C - Structures and Functions
- C - Arrays of Structures
- C - Self-Referential Structures
- C - Lookup Tables
- C - Dot (.) Operator
- C - Enumeration (or enum)
- C - Structure Padding and Packing
- C - Nested Structures
- C - Anonymous Structure and Union
- C - Bit Fields
- C - Typedef
- File Handling in C
- C - Input & Output
- C - File I/O (File Handling)
- C Preprocessors
- C - Preprocessors
- C - Pragmas
- C - Preprocessor Operators
- C - Header Files
- Memory Management in C
- C - Memory Management
- C - Memory Address
- C - Storage Classes
- Miscellaneous Topics
- C - Error Handling
- C - Variable Arguments
- C - Command Execution
- C - Math Functions
- C - Static Keyword
- C - Random Number Generation
- C - Command Line Arguments
- C Programming Resources
- C - Questions & Answers
- C - Quick Guide
- C - Cheat Sheet
- C - Useful Resources
- C - Discussion
- Selected Reading
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
- Developer's Best Practices
- Questions and Answers
- Effective Resume Writing
- HR Interview Questions
- Computer Glossary
Assignment Operators in C
In C language, the assignment operator stores a certain value in an already declared variable. A variable in C can be assigned the value in the form of a literal, another variable, or an expression.
The value to be assigned forms the right-hand operand, whereas the variable to be assigned should be the operand to the left of the " = " symbol, which is defined as a simple assignment operator in C.
In addition, C has several augmented assignment operators.
The following table lists the assignment operators supported by the C language −
Simple Assignment Operator (=)
The = operator is one of the most frequently used operators in C. As per the ANSI C standard, all the variables must be declared in the beginning. Variable declaration after the first processing statement is not allowed.
You can declare a variable to be assigned a value later in the code, or you can initialize it at the time of declaration.
You can use a literal, another variable, or an expression in the assignment statement.
Once a variable of a certain type is declared, it cannot be assigned a value of any other type. In such a case the C compiler reports a type mismatch error.
In C, the expressions that refer to a memory location are called "lvalue" expressions. A lvalue may appear as either the left-hand or right-hand side of an assignment.
On the other hand, the term rvalue refers to a data value that is stored at some address in memory. A rvalue is an expression that cannot have a value assigned to it which means an rvalue may appear on the right-hand side but not on the left-hand side of an assignment.
Variables are lvalues and so they may appear on the left-hand side of an assignment. Numeric literals are rvalues and so they may not be assigned and cannot appear on the left-hand side. Take a look at the following valid and invalid statements −
Augmented Assignment Operators
In addition to the = operator, C allows you to combine arithmetic and bitwise operators with the = symbol to form augmented or compound assignment operator. The augmented operators offer a convenient shortcut for combining arithmetic or bitwise operation with assignment.
For example, the expression "a += b" has the same effect of performing "a + b" first and then assigning the result back to the variable "a".
Run the code and check its output −
Similarly, the expression "a <<= b" has the same effect of performing "a << b" first and then assigning the result back to the variable "a".
Here is a C program that demonstrates the use of assignment operators in C −
When you compile and execute the above program, it will produce the following result −
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