Conditional Operator in C

The conditional operator is also known as a ternary operator. The conditional

statements are the decision-making statements which depends upon the output of the
expression. It is represented by two symbols, i.e., '?' and ':'.

As conditional operator works on three operands, so it is also known as the ternary

operator.

The behavior of the conditional operator is similar to the 'if-else' statement as 'if-else'
statement is also a decision-making statement.

Syntax of a conditional operator

1. Expression1? expression2: expression3;

The pictorial representation of the above syntax is shown below:

Meaning of the above syntax.

o In the above syntax, the expression1 is a Boolean condition that can be either
true or false value.

o If the expression1 results into a true value, then the expression2 will execute.

o The expression2 is said to be true only when it returns a non-zero value.

o If the expression1 returns false value then the expression3 will execute.

o The expression3 is said to be false only when it returns zero value.

Let's understand the ternary or conditional operator through an example.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int age; // variable declaration
5. printf("Enter your age");
6. scanf("%d",&age); // taking user input for age variable
7. (age>=18)? (printf("eligible for voting")) : (printf("not eligible for voting")); // condi
tional operator
8. return 0;
9. }

In the above code, we are taking input as the 'age' of the user. After taking input, we
have applied the condition by using a conditional operator. In this condition, we are
checking the age of the user. If the age of the user is greater than or equal to 18, then
the statement1 will execute, i.e., (printf("eligible for voting")) otherwise, statement2
will execute, i.e., (printf("not eligible for voting")).

Let's observe the output of the above program.

If we provide the age of user below 18, then the output would be:

If we provide the age of user above 18, then the output would be:
 As we can observe from the above two outputs that if the condition is true, then the
statement1 is executed; otherwise, statement2 will be executed.

Till now, we have observed that how conditional operator checks the condition and
based on condition, it executes the statements. Now, we will see how a conditional
operator is used to assign the value to a variable.

Let's understand this scenario through an example.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=5,b; // variable declaration
5. b=((a==5)?(3):(2)); // conditional operator
6. printf("The value of 'b' variable is : %d",b);
7. return 0;
8. }

In the above code, we have declared two variables, i.e., 'a' and 'b', and assign 5 value
to the 'a' variable. After the declaration, we are assigning value to the 'b' variable by
using the conditional operator. If the value of 'a' is equal to 5 then 'b' is assigned with a
3 value otherwise 2.

Output
The above output shows that the value of 'b' variable is 3 because the value of 'a'
variable is equal to 5.

As we know that the behavior of conditional operator and 'if-else' is similar but they
have some differences. Let's look at their differences.

o A conditional operator is a single programming statement, while the 'if-else'

statement is a programming block in which statements come under the
parenthesis.

o A conditional operator can also be used for assigning a value to the variable,
whereas the 'if-else' statement cannot be used for the assignment purpose.

o It is not useful for executing the statements when the statements are multiple,
whereas the 'if-else' statement proves more suitable when executing multiple
statements.

o The nested ternary operator is more complex and cannot be easily debugged,
while the nested 'if-else' statement is easy to read and maintain.

Bitwise Operator in C
The bitwise operators are the operators used to perform the operations on the data at
the bit-level. When we perform the bitwise operations, then it is also known as bit-level
programming. It consists of two digits, either 0 or 1. It is mainly used in numerical
computations to make the calculations faster.

We have different types of bitwise operators in the C programming language. The

following is the list of the bitwise operators:
 Operator Meaning of operator

& Bitwise AND operator

| Bitwise OR operator

^ Bitwise exclusive OR operator

~ One's complement operator (unary operator)

<< Left shift operator

>> Right shift operator

Let's look at the truth table of the bitwise operators.

X Y X&Y X|Y X^Y

0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 1 1

1 0 0 1 1

1 1 1 1 1

Bitwise AND operator

Bitwise AND operator is denoted by the single ampersand sign (&). Two integer
operands are written on both sides of the (&) operator. If the corresponding bits of both
the operands are 1, then the output of the bitwise AND operation is 1; otherwise, the
output would be 0.

For example,

1. We have two variables a and b.

2. a =6;
3. b=4;
4. The binary representation of the above two variables are given below:
5. a = 0110
6. b = 0100
7. When we apply the bitwise AND operation in the above two variables, i.e., a&b, the out
put would be:
8. Result = 0100

As we can observe from the above result that bits of both the variables are compared
one by one. If the bit of both the variables is 1 then the output would be 1, otherwise
0.

Let's understand the bitwise AND operator through the program.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=6, b=14; // variable declarations
5. printf("The output of the Bitwise AND operator a&b is %d",a&b);
6. return 0;
7. }

In the above code, we have created two variables, i.e., 'a' and 'b'. The values of 'a' and
'b' are 6 and 14 respectively. The binary value of 'a' and 'b' are 0110 and 1110,
respectively. When we apply the AND operator between these two variables,

a AND b = 0110 && 1110 = 0110

Output

Bitwise OR operator
 The bitwise OR operator is represented by a single vertical sign (|). Two integer
operands are written on both sides of the (|) symbol. If the bit value of any of the
operand is 1, then the output would be 1, otherwise 0.

For example,

1. We consider two variables,

2. a = 23;
3. b = 10;
4. The binary representation of the above two variables would be:
5. a = 0001 0111
6. b = 0000 1010
7. When we apply the bitwise OR operator in the above two variables, i.e., a|b , then the o
utput would be:
8. Result = 0001 1111

As we can observe from the above result that the bits of both the operands are
compared one by one; if the value of either bit is 1, then the output would be 1
otherwise 0.

Let's understand the bitwise OR operator through a program.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=23,b=10; // variable declarations
5. printf("The output of the Bitwise OR operator a|b is %d",a|b);
6. return 0;
7. }

Output
 Bitwise exclusive OR operator
Bitwise exclusive OR operator is denoted by (^) symbol. Two operands are written on
both sides of the exclusive OR operator. If the corresponding bit of any of the operand
is 1 then the output would be 1, otherwise 0.

For example,

1. We consider two variables a and b,

2. a = 12;
3. b = 10;
4. The binary representation of the above two variables would be:
5. a = 0000 1100
6. b = 0000 1010
7. When we apply the bitwise exclusive OR operator in the above two variables (a^b), the
n the result would be:
8. Result = 0000 1110

As we can observe from the above result that the bits of both the operands are
compared one by one; if the corresponding bit value of any of the operand is 1, then
the output would be 1 otherwise 0.

Let's understand the bitwise exclusive OR operator through a program.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=12,b=10; // variable declarations
5. printf("The output of the Bitwise exclusive OR operator a^b is %d",a^b);
6. return 0;
7. }

Output
 Bitwise complement operator
The bitwise complement operator is also known as one's complement operator. It is
represented by the symbol tilde (~). It takes only one operand or variable and
performs complement operation on an operand. When we apply the complement
operation on any bits, then 0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0.

For example,

1. If we have a variable named 'a',

2. a = 8;
3. The binary representation of the above variable is given below:
4. a = 1000
5. When we apply the bitwise complement operator to the operand, then the output would
be:
6. Result = 0111

As we can observe from the above result that if the bit is 1, then it gets changed to 0
else 1.

Let's understand the complement operator through a program.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=8; // variable declarations
5. printf("The output of the Bitwise complement operator ~a is %d",~a);
6. return 0;
7. }

Output
 Bitwise shift operators
Two types of bitwise shift operators exist in C programming. The bitwise shift operators
will shift the bits either on the left-side or right-side. Therefore, we can say that the
bitwise shift operator is divided into two categories:

o Left-shift operator

o Right-shift operator

Left-shift operator

It is an operator that shifts the number of bits to the left-side.

Syntax of the left-shift operator is given below:

1. Operand << n

Where,

Operand is an integer expression on which we apply the left-shift operation.

n is the number of bits to be shifted.

In the case of Left-shift operator, 'n' bits will be shifted on the left-side. The 'n' bits on
the left side will be popped out, and 'n' bits on the right-side are filled with 0.

For example,

1. Suppose we have a statement:

2. int a = 5;
3. The binary representation of 'a' is given below:
4. a = 0101
5. If we want to left-shift the above representation by 2, then the statement would be:
6. a << 2;
7. 0101<<2 = 00010100

Let's understand through a program.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=5; // variable initialization
5. printf("The value of a<<2 is : %d ", a<<2);
6. return 0;
7. }

Output

Right-shift operator

It is an operator that shifts the number of bits to the right side.

Syntax of the right-shift operator is given below:

1. Operand >> n;

Where,

Operand is an integer expression on which we apply the right-shift operation.

N is the number of bits to be shifted.

In the case of the right-shift operator, 'n' bits will be shifted on the right-side. The 'n'
bits on the right-side will be popped out, and 'n' bits on the left-side are filled with 0.
 For example,

1. Suppose we have a statement,

2. int a = 7;
3. The binary representation of the above variable would be:
4. a = 0111
5. If we want to right-shift the above representation by 2, then the statement would be:
6. a>>2;
7. 0000 0111 >> 2 = 0000 0001

Let's understand through a program.

1. #include <stdio.h>
2. int main()
3. {
4. int a=7; // variable initialization
5. printf("The value of a>>2 is : %d ", a>>2);
6. return 0;
7. }

Output