Operators and operands

Operators and operands

Operators are special symbols that represent computations like addition and multiplication. The values the operator is applied to are called operands.

The operators +, -, *, / and ** perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and exponentiation.

Eg:

20+32

hour-1

hour*60+minute

minute/60

5**2 (5+9)*(15-7)

Precedence Of Operators

The order of evaluation depends on the rules of precedence. The acronym PEMDAS is a useful way to remember the rules:

·           Parentheses have the highest precedence

·           Exponentiation has the next highest precedence, so 2**1+1 is 3, not 4, and 3*1**3 is 3, not 27.

·           Multiplication and Division have the same precedence, which is higher than Addition and Subtraction, which also have the same precedence. So 2*3-1 is 5, not 4, and 6+4/2 is 8, not 5.

·           Operators with the same precedence are evaluated from left to right.