Operator Precedence
Operator precedence determines the order in which operators are evaluated when more than one operator is used in an expression.
The higher an operator’s precedence, the earlier it is evaluated in comparison with the operators with lower precedence.
Consider the following example:
1 | a+b*c |
The above expression is evaluated in the order of the multiplication operator (*) at first, then the plus operator (+), and finally, the assignment operator (=), due to their respective precedence order.
Precedence can also be manually overridden using a parenthesis e.g.,
1 | (a+b)*c |
The above mentioned expression has its parenthesis around the plus operator, which alters the precedence thereby evaluating the addition operation first.
Operator Associativity
Associativity determines the way in which the operators having same precedence are parsed e.g.:
1 | a <operator> b <operator> c |
Left-associativity (left to right) denotes that it is processed as (a <operator> b) <operator> c, while right-associativity (right to left) denotes it is interpreted as a <operator> (b <operator>c).
Assignment operators are right-associative i.e.,
1 | a = b = 5; |
Here both a and b get the same value of 5.
At first, b is set to 5.
Then a is also initialized to 5 i.e., the return value of b = 5(right operand of the assignment).
Operator Precedence Table
In the following table, the highest precedence refers to 20 and to the lowest to 1.
Precedence | Operator type | Associativity | Individual operators |
---|---|---|---|
20 | Grouping | n/a | (…) |
19 | Member Access (dot operator) | left-to-right | … . … |
Computed Member Access | left-to-right | … [ … ] | |
new (with argument list) | n/a | new … ( … ) | |
Function Call | left-to-right | … ( … ) | |
18 | new (without argument list) | right-to-left | new … |
17 | Postfix Increment | n/a | … ++ |
Postfix Decrement | … — | ||
16 | Logical NOT | right-to-left | ! … |
Bitwise NOT | ~ … | ||
Unary Plus | + … | ||
Unary Negation | – … | ||
Prefix Increment | ++ … | ||
Prefix Decrement | — … | ||
typeof | typeof … | ||
void | void … | ||
delete> | delete … | ||
await | await … | ||
15 | Exponentiation | right-to-left | … ** … |
14 | Multiplication | left-to-right | … * … |
Division | … / … | ||
Remainder | … % … | ||
13 | Addition | left-to-right | … + … |
Subtraction | … – … | ||
12 | Bitwise Left Shift | left-to-right | … << … |
Bitwise Right Shift | … >> … | ||
Bitwise Unsigned Right Shift | … >>> … | ||
11 | Less Than | left-to-right | … < … |
Less Than Or Equal | … <= … | ||
Greater Than | … > … | ||
Greater Than Or Equal | … >= … | ||
in | … in … | ||
instanceof | … instanceof … | ||
10 | Equality | left-to-right | … == … |
Inequality | … != … | ||
Strict Equality | … === … | ||
Strict Inequality | … !== … | ||
9 | Bitwise AND | left-to-right | … & … |
8 | Bitwise XOR | left-to-right | … ^ … |
7 | Bitwise OR | left-to-right | … | … |
6 | Logical AND | left-to-right | … && … |
5 | Logical OR | left-to-right | … || … |
4 | Conditional | right-to-left | … ? … : … |
3 | Assignment | right-to-left | … = … |
… += … | |||
… -= … | |||
… **= … | |||
… *= … | |||
… /= … | |||
… %= … | |||
… <<= … | |||
… >>= … | |||
… >>>= … | |||
… &= … | |||
… ^= … | |||
… |= … | |||
2 | yield | right-to-left | yield … |
yield* | yield* … | ||
1 | Comma / Sequence | left-to-right | … , … |