C Assignment Operators
An assignment operation assigns the value of the right-hand operand to the storage location named by the left-hand operand. Therefore, the left-hand operand of an assignment operation must be a modifiable l-value. After the assignment, an assignment expression has the value of the left operand but is not an l-value.
Syntax
assignment-expression:
conditional-expressionunary-expression assignment-operator assignment-expression
assignment-operator: one of
= *= /= %= += –= <<= >>= &= ^= |=
The assignment operators in C can both transform and assign values in a single operation. C provides the following assignment operators:
Operator |
Operation Performed |
|---|---|
= |
Simple assignment |
*= |
Multiplication assignment |
/= |
Division assignment |
%= |
Remainder assignment |
+= |
Addition assignment |
–= |
Subtraction assignment |
<<= |
Left-shift assignment |
>>= |
Right-shift assignment |
&= |
Bitwise-AND assignment |
^= |
Bitwise-exclusive-OR assignment |
|= |
Bitwise-inclusive-OR assignment |
In assignment, the type of the right-hand value is converted to the type of the left-hand value, and the value is stored in the left operand after the assignment has taken place. The left operand must not be an array, a function, or a constant. The specific conversion path, which depends on the two types, is outlined in detail in Type Conversions.