Chapter 15. Expressions

Much of the work in a program is done by evaluating expressions, either for their side effects, such as assignments to variables, or for their values, which can be used as arguments or operands in larger expressions, or to affect the execution sequence in statements, or both.

This chapter specifies the meanings of expressions and the rules for their evaluation.

15.1 Evaluation, Denotation, and Result

When an expression in a program is evaluated (executed), the result denotes one of three things:

• A variable (§4.12) (in C, this would be called an lvalue)

• A value (§4.2, §4.3)

• Nothing (the expression is said to be void)

If an expression denotes a variable, and a value is required for use in further evaluation, then ...

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