C Primer Plus, Fourth Edition

Section IV—Expressions, Statements, and Program Flow

Summary: Expressions and Statements

In C, expressions represent values, and statements represent instructions to the computer.

Expressions

An expression is a combination of operators and operands. The simplest expression is just a constant or a variable with no operator, such as 22 or beebop. More complex examples are 55 + 22 and vap = 2 * (vip + (vup = 4)).

Statements

A statement is a command to the computer. Any expression followed by a semicolon forms a statement, although not necessarily a meaningful one. Statements can be simple or compound. Simple statements terminate in a semicolon, as shown in these examples:

Declaration statement	int toes;
Assignment statement	toes = 12;
Function call ...