Editing Operator (computer programming) (section)

{{Short description|Basic programming language construct}}
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{{About|operators in computer programming|other uses|Operator (disambiguation)}}

In [[computer programming]], an '''operator''' is a [[programming language]] construct that provides functionality that may not be possible to define as a user-defined [[Function (computer programming)|function]] (i.e. [[sizeof]] in [[C (programming language)|C]]) or has [[Syntax (programming languages)|syntax]] different than a function (i.e. [[Infix notation|infix]] addition as in <code>a+b</code>). Like other programming language concepts, ''operator'' has a generally accepted, although debatable meaning among practitioners while at the same time each language gives it specific meaning in that context, and therefore the meaning varies by language. 

Some operators are represented with symbols {{endash}} characters typically not allowed for a function [[identifier (computer science)|identifier]] {{endash}} to allow for presentation that is more familiar looking than typical function syntax. For example, a function that tests for greater-than could be named <code>gt</code>, but many languages provide an infix symbolic operator so that code looks more familiar. For example, this:

<!--this is pseudocode; do not use syntaxhighlight lang="something"-->
<code>if gt(x, y) then return</code>

Can be:

<code>if x > y then return</code>

Some languages allow a language-defined operator to be overridden with user-defined behavior and some allow for user-defined operator symbols.

Operators may also differ semantically from functions. For example, [[short-circuit evaluation|short-circuit]] Boolean operations evaluate later arguments only if earlier ones are not false.