Operators are one of C's strong points and it is important to know how to use them - but what are side effects and who ordered sequence points!? It all can seem confusing. This extract, from my new book on programming C in an IoT context, provides a very helpful explanation.

Fundamental C: Getting Closer To The Machine

Now available as a paperback and ebook from Amazon.

1. About C
     Extract Dependent v Independent
                 & Undefined Behavior 
2. Getting Started With C Using NetBeans
3. Control Structures and Data
4. Variables
     Extract Variables
5. Arithmetic  and Representation
     Extract Arithmetic and Representation
6. Operators and Expression
     Extract: Expressions
     Extract Side Effects, Sequence Points And Lazy Evaluation
     First Draft of Chapter: Low Down Data
7. Functions Scope and Lifetime
8. Arrays
     Extract  Simple Arrays
     Extract  Ennumerations
9. Strings
     Extract  Simple Strings
     Extract: String I/O ***NEW!!
10. Pointers
      Extract  Starting Pointers
      Extract  Pointers, Cast & Type Punning
11. Structs
      Extract Basic Structs
      Extract Typedef
    
12. Bit Manipulation
      Extract Basic Bits
      Extract Shifts And Rotates 
    
13. Files
     Extract Files
     Extract Random Access Files 

14. Compiling C – Preprocessor, Compiler, Linker
     Extract Compilation & Preprocessor
    

Also see the companion volume: Applying C

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Covered in the chapter but not included in this extract.

1. Memory Basics
2. The Numeric Data Types
3. Floating Point
4. Declaring Variables
5. Initialization
6. Overflow – Undefined Behavior
7. Literals
8. Exact Size Variables
9. Type Modifiers
10. Variable Lifetimes
11. lvalue and rvalue
12. Operators and Expressions
13. Operators in C

Side Effects

An important idea in C is that assignment is treated as a dyadic operator with the lowest precedence. The operator = stores the value on the right-hand side in the variable on the left-hand side and then its result is the value of the right-hand side.

Put more academically you can say that the result of A=B is B but the operator has a side effect of storing the value of B in A.

In general side effects are bad ideas because they spoil the purity of the picture of an operation that combines a number of values to give a result.

For example, in A=B+C the + has a higher priority so B+C is evaluated and then the result is used in A=result.

Treating assignment as an operator means that you can, if you really want to, write expressions like:

D=(A=B)+C 

which first evaluates A=B to give B and as a side effect stores this in A and then adds C to B and assigns this to D.

Notice that == is the test for equality in C and so:

A==(B=C) 

assigns C to B and tests if C is equal to A in a single expression. The brackets are necessary because == has a higher priority than =.

Taking this a little further, C also allows other operators to be combined with the assignment operator.

For example:

A+=1 

translates to A=A+1.

Another subtle point concerns what:

A*=2+3 

evaluates to?

Is it (A*2)+3 or is it A*(2+3)?

The answer is that it is A*(2+3) even though the * should have a higher priority than the +. The reason is of course that the *= operator has a lower priority than * or +.

Once you have introduced the idea of a side effect as part of the assignment operator you might as well carry on and introduce other operators with side effects.

For example, the unitary operator ++ when used as a postfix operator in A++ returns current value of A. That it is the same as just writing A, but as a side effect it increments A. In other words, if A is 3 then after B=A++, B is set to 3 and A is set to 4.

Notice that this is quite different from ++A, the corresponding unary prefix operator, the result of which is A+1 and which has the side effect of incrementing A. So, if A is 3 then, after B=++A, B is set to 4 and so is A. Notice that the ++ postfix operator has the highest priority and associates from left to right, whereas as a prefix operator it has a priority of 2 and associates from right to left. Also notice that A++ has the same meaning as A+=1.