C# Operators and Reserved Keywords

In this article, we will learn about C# operators, various types of C# operators with examples to demonstrate the use of the operators. Also, we will cover the reserved keywords in C# in this article.

The operators are symbols that are used to perform operations on operands. There can be many types of operations like arithmetic, logical, bitwise, etc. For example, in 10*10, * is an operator that is used to carry out multiplication operation, while 10 is operand. Operators are used for performing operation on variables and values in a program. C# provides the following type of operators:

1. Arithmetic Operators

2. Relational Operators

3. Logical Operators

4. Bitwise Operators

5. Assignment Operators

6. Miscellaneous Operators

1. Arithmetic Operators

These are the operators used for performing mathematical (arithmetic) operations on numbers.

Let's take a program example and see some of these operators in action.

Filename: Program.cs

using System;

namespace Studytonight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int a = 10, b = 10;
            Console.WriteLine(a + b);
            Console.WriteLine(a++);   // increment the value by 1 (a = a + 1)
            Console.WriteLine(a);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }  
}

Output:

20
10
11

2. Relational Operators

These are operators used for performing relational operations on operands.

Let's see the practical usage of some relational operators.

Filename: Program.cs

using System;

namespace Studytonight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int a = 0;
            int b = 10;
            Console.WriteLine(a > b);
            Console.WriteLine(a == b);
            Console.WriteLine(a < b);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output:

False
True
False

3. Logical Operators

These are the operators used for performing logical operations on operands.

Let's see the practical usage of some logical operators.

Filename: Program.cs

using System;

namespace Studytonight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            bool a = true, b = false;
            Console.WriteLine(!b);
            Console.WriteLine(a || b);
            Console.WriteLine(a && b);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output:

True
True
False

4. Bitwise Operators

These are operators used for performing bitwise operations on variables.

Let's see the practical usage of some bitwise operators.

Filename: Program.cs

using System;

namespace Studytonight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int a = 5, b = 3;
            Console.WriteLine(a | b);
            Console.WriteLine(a & b);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output:

7
1

Code Explanation:

0000 0101 (5 in Binary)
0000 0011 (3 in Binary)
__________________________

0000 0111 (Bitwise OR = 7)
0000 0001 (Bitwise AND = 1)

5. Assignment Operators

Following are the assignment operators in C# programming language:

Let's see the practical usage of some assignment operators.

Filename: Program.cs

using System;

namespace Studytonight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int a = 10, b = 50;
            a += b; //a = a + b; 10 + 50
            Console.WriteLine(a);
            a *= b; //a = a * b; 60 * 50
            Console.WriteLine(a);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output:

60
3000

6. Miscellaneous Operators

Following are the miscellaneous operators in C# programming language:

Let's see the practical usage of some assignment operators.

Filename: Program.cs

using System;

namespace Studytonight
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(sizeof(int));
            Console.WriteLine(typeof(void));
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Output:

4
System.Void

Operator Precedence in C#

The precedence and associativity of C# operators with the highest precedence appear at the top of the table, those with the lowest appear at the bottom.

Reserved Keywords in C#

Total of 79 keywords is predefined sets of reserved words that have special meaning in C# programming language. The keywords which are reserved cannot be used as a variable name, constant name, etc.

Contextual Keywords in C#

Other than the above-mentioned keywords, C# has the following contextual keywords. Contextual keywords have a specific meaning in a limited program context and can be used as identifiers outside that context and they are not reserved words in C#.

We hope that this tutorial helped you in understanding the concept of operators, reserved keywords and contextual keywords in C# programming language and the code examples proved useful. In the next tutorial we will cover Control Statements (if-else etc) in C#.