CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cunary-operatorbinary-operators
sarigehalli
sarigehalli

Reputation: 71

Is there any operator in c which is both unary and binary?

Is there any operator in c which is both unary and binary ? This question was asked in one of the interview.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 10068

Answers (3)

haccks
haccks

Reputation: 106022

What I think only . operator is both unary and binary in C (not specified in standard):

.:- Unary: In designators of structures- {.meber1 = x, .member3 = z} (C99 and latter). Binary: Accessing structure members.

There is no operator in C which is unary and binary as well.
Symbols, like +, -, * and &, are used as unary and binary operators but then these symbols are treated as different operators:

  1. +, - Unary: i = -1 j = +1. Binary: i = i+1, j = j+1
  2. * Unary: Dereference operator. Binary: Multiplication operator.
  3. & Unary: Reference operator. Binary: Bitwise AND operator.

Upvotes: 2

humodz
humodz

Reputation: 602

The asterisk (*) can be used for dereferencing (unary) or multiplication (binary).

The ampersand (&) can be used for referencing (unary) or bitwise AND (binary).

The plus/minus signs (+/-) can be used for identity/negation (unary) or addition/subtraction (binary).

But, as others pointed out, those are symbols shared by different operators. Each of those operators have only one n-arity.

Upvotes: 10

Keith Thompson
Keith Thompson

Reputation: 263307

No, there isn't. Every operator is either unary, binary, or ternary.

Some unary and binary operators happen to use the same symbol:

  • * for dereference and multiplication
  • - for negation and subtraction
  • + for identity and addition
  • & for address-of and bitwise "and"

But unary and binary * are still distinct operators that happen to be spelled the same way.

Upvotes: 7

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