Operators in programming languages are symbols or special characters that are used to perform various operations on data. They can be classified into several categories based on their functions and purposes. Here are the main types of operators:
Arithmetic Operators:
These operators perform basic mathematical operations on numeric values.
+ (Addition)
– (Subtraction)
* (Multiplication)
/ (Division)
% (Modulus, or remainder after division)
** (Exponentiation)
Comparison Operators (Relational Operators):
These operators are used to compare two values and return a Boolean result (true or false).
== (Equal to)
!= (Not equal to)
< (Less than)
> (Greater than)
<= (Less than or equal to)
>= (Greater than or equal to)
Logical Operators:
These operators are used to perform logical operations on Boolean values (true or false).
&& (Logical AND)
|| (Logical OR)
! (Logical NOT)
Assignment Operators:
These operators are used to assign values to variables.
= (Assignment operator)
+=, -= (Compound assignment operators for addition and subtraction)
*=, /= (Compound assignment operators for multiplication and division)
Bitwise Operators:
These operators work on the individual bits of integers or binary values.
& (Bitwise AND)
| (Bitwise OR)
^ (Bitwise XOR)
~ (Bitwise NOT)
<< (Left shift)
>> (Right shift)
Conditional (Ternary) Operator:
This operator is used to evaluate a condition and return one of two values depending on whether the condition is true or false. In many programming languages, is it represented as a condition ? value_if_true : value_if_false.
Membership Operators (in or not in):
These operators are often used in Python for checking if a value is a member of a sequence (e.g., list, tuple, string).
in (Checks if a value is in a sequence)
not in (Checks if a value is not in a sequence)
Identity Operators: T
hese operators are used to compare the memory locations of two objects.
is (Checks if two objects are the same in memory)
is not (Checks if two objects are not the same in memory)
String Concatenation Operator: In some languages, + is used for concatenating strings.
Special Operators:
Some programming languages have unique operators that serve specific purposes. For example:
?: (Conditional operator in C and similar languages)
:: (Scope resolution operator in C++)
::: (Triple colon operator in R)
The availability and behavior of operators may vary from one programming language to another, so it’s essential to refer to the documentation of the specific language you are working with to understand how operators work in that context.
