In C-based languages, does arithmetic operator precedence outrank assignment?

• A. Depends
• B. No
• C. Yes
• D. Only for certain operators

Answer: (C)

In C-based languages, operator precedence decides which parts of an expression are evaluated first. Arithmetic operators (like multiply, divide, and modulo) have higher precedence than the assignment operator, so those arithmetic steps are computed before the assignment happens. This means expressions like x = a + b * c are evaluated as x = (a + (b * c)): the multiplication happens first, then the addition, and finally the result is assigned to x. The assignment itself is right-to-left associative, but the arithmetic parts still occur before the assignment takes place. Therefore, arithmetic precedence does outrank assignment.