associativity
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associativity
(programming)The property of an operator that says whether
a sequence of three or more expressions combined by the
operator will be evaluated from left to right (left
associative) or right to left (right associative). For
example, in Perl, the lazy and operator && is left
associative so in the expression:
$i >= 0 && $x[$i] >= 0 && $y[$x[$i]] == 0
the left-most && is evaluated first, whereas = is right associative, so in
$a = $b = 42
the right-most assignment is performed first.
$i >= 0 && $x[$i] >= 0 && $y[$x[$i]] == 0
the left-most && is evaluated first, whereas = is right associative, so in
$a = $b = 42
the right-most assignment is performed first.