Arizona State University (ASU) CSE100 Principles of Programming with C++ Midterm 1 Practice Exam

In C++, operator precedence determines the order in which different operators are evaluated in an expression. The parentheses, represented by ( ), are at the highest level of precedence. This allows for the grouping of expressions, ensuring that the operations contained within the parentheses are carried out first, regardless of the precedence of other operators outside the parentheses.

For example, in the expression \(3 + 5 * 2\), multiplication has a higher precedence than addition. However, if you write it as \( (3 + 5) * 2 \), the addition inside the parentheses is evaluated first, followed by the multiplication. This demonstrates how parentheses can override the default precedence rules.

While other operators like addition (+, -), multiplication (*, /, %) have their own levels of precedence, none of them can change the order of evaluation as effectively as parentheses can. Hence, acknowledging parentheses as the first and highest level of operator precedence is fundamental in understanding how expressions are evaluated in C++.