Operator precedence and associativity

When an expression contains multiple operators, the precedence of the operators controls the order in which the individual operators are evaluated.

[Note: For example, the expression x + y * z is evaluated as x + (y * z) because the * operator has higher precedence than the binary + operator. end note]

The precedence of an operator is established by the definition of its associated grammar production.

[Note: For example, an additive-expression consists of a sequence of multiplicative-expressions separated by + or -operators, thus giving the + and -operators lower precedence than the *, /, and % operators. end note]

The following table summarizes all operators in order of precedence from highest to lowest: Section Category Operators 14.5 Primary x.y f(x) a[x] x++ x--new typeof checked unchecked 14.6 Unary + -! ~ ++x --x (T)x 14.7 Multiplicative * / % 14.7 Additive + -14.8 Shift << >> 14.9 Relational and type-testing < > <= >= is as 14.9 Equality == != 14.10 Logical AND & 14.10 Logical XOR ^ 14.10 Logical OR | 14.11 Conditional AND && 14.11 Conditional OR || 14.12 Conditional ?: 14.13 Assignment = *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= &= ^= |= When an operand occurs between two operators with the same precedence, the associativity of the operators controls the order in which the operations are performed: Except for the assignment operators, all binary operators are left-associative, meaning that operations are performed from left to right. [Example: For example, x + y + z is evaluated as (x + y) + z. end example] The assignment operators and the conditional operator (?:) are right-associative, meaning that operations are performed from right to left. [Example: For example, x = y = z is evaluated as x = (y = z). end example]
Precedence and associativity can be controlled using parentheses. [Example: For example, x + y * z first multiplies y by z and then adds the result to x, but (x + y) * z first adds x and y and then multiplies the result by z. end example]