C# Operators

Operators in C# are some special symbols that perform some action on operands. In mathematics, the plus symbol (+) do the sum of the left and right numbers. In the same way, C# includes various operators for different types of operations.

The following example demonstrates the + operator in C#.

Example: + Operator

int x = 5 + 5;
int y = 10 + x;
int z = x + y;

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In the above example, + operator adds two number literals and assign the result to a variable. It also adds the values of two int variables and assigns the result to a variable.

Some operators behave differently based on the type of the operands. For example, + operator concatenates two strings.

Example: + Operator with Strings

string greet1 = "Hello " + "World!";
string greet2 = greeting + name;

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Note:

There are two types of operators in C#, Unary operators and Binary operators. Unary operators act on single operand, whereas binary operators act on two operands (left-hand side and right-hand side operand of an operator).

C# includes the following categories of operators:

Arithmetic operators
Assignment operators
Comparison operators
Equality operators
Boolean logical operators
Betwise and shift operators
Member access operators
Type-cast operators
Pointer related operators

Arithmetic Operators

The arithmetic operators perform arithmetic operations on all the numeric type operands such as sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, ulong, float, double, and decimal.

Operator	Name	Description	Example
+	Addition	Computes the sum of left and right operands.	int x = 5 + 5;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-AQ5t4m")
-	Subtraction	Subtract the right operand from the left operand	int x = 5 - 1;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-Tz6rEA")
*	Multiplication	Multiply left and right operand	int x = 5 * 1;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-2xKw5p")
/	Division	Divides the left operand by the right operand	int x = 10 / 2;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-278Kl1")
%	Remainder	Computes the remainder after dividing its left operand by its right operand	int x = 5 % 2;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-HzWx8H")
++	Unary increment	Unary increment ++ operator increases its operand by 1	x++	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-2GrYMx")
--	Unary decrement	Unary decrement -- operator decreases its operand by 1	x--	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-sGd0gG")
+	Unary plus	Returns the value of operand	+5	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-ljO0lc")
-	Unary minus	Computes the numeric negation of its operand.	-5	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-ljO0lc")

Assignment Operators

The assignment operator = assigns its right had value to its left-hand variable, property, or indexer. It can also be used with other arithmetic, Boolean logical, and bitwise operators.

Operator	Name	Description	Example
=	Assignment	Assigns its right had value to its left-hand variable, property or indexer.	x = 10;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-OnvjFQ")
x op= y	Compound assignment	Short form of x =x op y where op = any arithmetic, Boolean logical, and bitwise operator.	x += 5;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-ZYXCLS")
??=	Null-coalescing assignment	C# 8 onwards, ??= assigns value of the right operand only if the left operand is null	x ??= 5;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-fbJUvB")

Comparison Operators

Comparison operators compre two numeric operands and returns true or false.

Operator	Description	Example
<	Returns true if the left operand is less than the right operand	x < y;
>	Returns true if the left operand is greater than the right operand	x > y;
<=	Returns true if the left operand is less than or equal to the right operand	x <= y;
>=	Returns true if the left operand is greater than or equal to the right operand	x >= y;

Equality Operators

The equality operator checks whether the two operands are equal or not.

Operator	Description	Example
==	Returns true if operands are equal otherwise false.	x == y;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-FUCaKJ")
!=	Returns true if operands are not equal otherwise false.	x != y;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-MXvsl7")

Boolean Logical Operators

The Boolean logical operators perform a logical operation on bool operands.

Operator	Description	Example
!	Reverses the bool result of bool expression. Returns false if result is true and returns true if result is false.	!false	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-9l4Mbq")
&&	Computes the logical AND of its bool operands. Returns true both operands are true, otherwise returns false.	x && y;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-s7QIlQ")
\|\|	Computes the logical OR of its bool operands. Returns true when any one operand is true.	x \|\| y;	@ttHelpers.TryItLink("cid=cs-HkExSJ")

Operator Evaluation & Precedence

Evaluation of the operands in an expression starts from left to right. If multiple operators are used in an expression, then the operators with higher priority are evaluated before the operators with lower priority.

The following table lists operators starting with the higher precedence operators to lower precedence operators.

Operators	Category
x.y, x?.y, x?[y], f(x), a[i], x++, x--, new, typeof, checked, unchecked, default, nameof, delegate, sizeof, stackalloc, x->y	Primary
+x, -x, !x, ~x, ++x, --x, ^x, (T)x, await, &x, *x, true and false	Unary
x..y	Range
x * y, x / y, x % y	Multiplicative
x + y, x - y	Additive
x << y, x >> y	Shift
x < y, x > y, x <= y, x >= y, is, as	Relational and type-testing
x == y, x != y	Equality
x & y	Boolean logical AND
x ^ y	Boolean logical XOR
x \| y	Boolean logical OR
x && y	Conditional AND
x \|\| y	Conditional OR
x ?? y	Null-coalescing operator
c ? t : f	Conditional operator
x = y, x += y, x -= y, x *= y, x /= y, x %= y, x &= y, x \|= y, x ^= y, x <<= y, x >>= y, x ??= y, =>	Assignment and lambda declaration

The following example demonstrates operator precedence:

Example: Operator Precedence

int a = 5 + 3 * 3;
int b = 5 + 3 * 3 /  2; 
int c = (5 + 3) * 3 /  2; 
int d = (3 * 3) * (3 / 3 + 5);

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Learn about C# operators in details.