Editing Operators in C and C++ (section)

===Chained expressions===
The precedence table determines the order of binding in chained expressions, when it is not expressly specified by parentheses.
* For example, <code>++x*3</code> is ambiguous without some precedence rule(s). The precedence table tells us that: {{mono|x}} is 'bound' more tightly to {{mono|++}} than to {{mono|*}}, so that whatever {{mono|++}} does (now or later—see below), it does it ONLY to {{mono|x}} (and not to <code>x*3</code>); it is equivalent to (<code>++x</code>, <code>x*3</code>).
* Similarly, with <code>3*x++</code>, where though the post-fix {{mono|++}} is designed to act AFTER the entire expression is evaluated, the precedence table makes it clear that ONLY {{mono|x}} gets incremented (and NOT <code>3*x</code>). In fact, the expression (<code>tmp=x++</code>, <code>3*tmp</code>) is evaluated with {{mono|tmp}} being a temporary value. It is functionally equivalent to something like (<code>tmp=3*x</code>, <code>++x</code>, <code>tmp</code>).
[[Image:Precedence 2.png|center|thumb|Precedence and bindings]]
* Abstracting the issue of precedence or binding, consider the diagram above for the expression 3+2*y[i]++. The compiler's job is to resolve the diagram into an expression, one in which several unary operators (call them 3+( . ), 2*( . ), ( . )++ and ( . )[ i ]) are competing to bind to y. The order of precedence table resolves the final sub-expression they each act upon: ( . )[ i ] acts only on y, ( . )++ acts only on y[i], 2*( . ) acts only on y[i]++ and 3+( . ) acts 'only' on 2*((y[i])++). It is important to note that WHAT sub-expression gets acted on by each operator is clear from the precedence table but WHEN each operator acts is not resolved by the precedence table; in this example, the ( . )++ operator acts only on y[i] by the precedence rules but binding levels alone do not indicate the timing of the postfix ++ (the ( . )++ operator acts only after y[i] is evaluated in the expression).