{"id":7890,"date":"2022-09-10T20:31:03","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T15:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jassweb.com\/solved\/solved-when-do-you-use-the-operator-in-c-language\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T20:31:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T15:01:03","slug":"solved-when-do-you-use-the-operator-in-c-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jassweb.com\/solved\/solved-when-do-you-use-the-operator-in-c-language\/","title":{"rendered":"[Solved] When do you use the & operator in C language?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Generally, you use just the name of an object, like i<\/code>, when you want its value. In printf(\"%d \", i)<\/code>, we want printf<\/code> to print the value of i<\/code>, so we just pass i<\/code>.<\/p>\n

In scanf(\"%d\", \u2026)<\/code>, we do not want to tell scanf<\/code> what the value of i<\/code> is. We want scanf<\/code> to change i<\/code>. To do this, we must provide scanf<\/code> with some reference to i<\/code>. To do this, we give scanf<\/code> the address of i<\/code>, with scanf(\"%d\", &i)<\/code>.<\/p>\n

So, when passing an argument to a routine, you will use &<\/code> if you want to pass the address of an object to that routine. If you want to pass the value, you will not use &<\/code>.<\/p>\n

Technically, whenever we write i<\/code> in an expression, that designates the object i<\/code>, not its value. However, in many cases, an object is automatically converted to its value. So, in printf(\"%d\", i*3);<\/code>, the object i<\/code> is automatically converted to its value, and then the value is multiplied by 3. This is an automatic part of the language, and it works well, so you rarely have to think about it.<\/p>\n

This automatic conversion of an object to its value is called lvalue conversion<\/em>. There are some exceptions to it. In these cases, we want to use the object i<\/code> rather than its value:<\/p>\n