The Increment and Decrement Operators are some of the C Programming Operator, which are used to increase or decrease the value by 1. For instance, Incremental operator ++ is used to increase the existing variable value by 1 (x = x + 1). And decrement operator – – is used to decrease or subtract the existing value by 1 (x = x – 1). The basic syntax for both increment and decrement operators in C Programming is:
- Increment Operator : ++x or x++
- Decrement Operator: –x or x–
Increment and decrement operators in C Example
Let’s see one example to get a better idea!
/* Increment and Decrement Operators in C Example */
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int x = 10,y = 20;
printf("----INCREMENT OPERATOR EXAMPLE---- \n");
printf("Value of x : %d \n", x); //Original Value
printf("Value of x : %d \n", x++); // Using increment Operator
printf("Value of x : %d \n", x); //Incremented value
printf("----DECREMENT OPERATOR EXAMPLE---- \n");
printf("Value of y : %d \n", y); //Original Value
printf("Value of y : %d \n", y--); // using decrement Operator
printf("Value of y : %d \n", y); //decremented value
return 0;
}
OUTPUT
At Line 7 we used the increment operator. So the value of the X is returned first (i.e, 10) and then X value is incremented by 1.
Line 8: We called the X value again, it displays 11 because the value is updated already. Same with the decrement operator.
Prefix and Postfix in C
If you observe the above syntax, we can assign the increment and decrement operators either before operand or after the operand. When ++ or — is used before operand like: ++x, –x then we called it as prefix, if ++ or — is used after the operand like: x++ or x– then we called it as postfix. Let’s explore the prefix and postfix
- ++i (Pre-increment): It will increment the value of i even before assigning it to the variable i.
- i++ (Post-increment): The operator will return the variable value first (i.e, i value) then only i value is incremented by 1.
- –i (Pre decrement): It will decrement the value of i even before assigning it to the variable i.
- i– (Post decrement): The operator will return the variable value first (i.e, i value) then only i value is decrements by 1.
Prefix and Postfix in C Example
This C Program will show you, How to use Increment and Decrement Operators in C as Prefix and Postfix
/* Increment and Decrement Operators in C as Prefix and Postfix */
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
int x = 10,y = 20, a = 5, b= 4;
printf("---- PRE INCREMENT OPERATOR EXAMPLE---- \n");
printf("Value of x : %d \n", x); //Original Value
printf("Value of x : %d \n", ++x); // using Pre increment Operator
printf("Value of x Incremented : %d \n", x); //Incremented value
printf("----POST INCREMENT OPERATOR EXAMPLE---- \n");
printf("Value of y : %d \n", y); //Original Value
printf("Value of y : %d \n", y++); // using Post increment Operator
printf("Value of Incremented y : %d \n", y); //Incremented value
printf("----PRE DECREMENT OPERATOR EXAMPLE---- \n");
printf("Value of a : %d \n", a); //Original Value
printf("Value of a : %d \n", --a); // using Pre decrement Operator
printf("Value of decremented y : %d \n", a); //decremented value
printf("----POST DECREMENT OPERATOR EXAMPLE---- \n");
printf("Value of b : %d \n", b); //Original Value
printf("Value of b : %d \n", b--); // using Post decrement Operator
printf("Value of decremented b : %d \n", b); //decremented value
return 0;
}
OUTPUT
NOTE: Although increment and decrement operators in C programming are used in For Loop, While and Do-While loops, we are not given an example here because it is too early to understand the loops concept. Try to understand the concept of the prefix and postfix. This helps you to understand if, for loop, while loop and do-while loop syntax easily.
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