Infix notation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Prefix notation
Infix notation
Postfix notation

Infix notation is the common arithmetic and logical formula notation, in which operators are written infix-style between the operands they act on (e.g. 2 + 2). It is not as simple to parse by computer as prefix notation ( e.g. + 2 2 ) or postfix notation ( e.g. 2 2 + ), but many programming languages use it to take advantage of its familiarity.

In infix notation, unlike in prefix or postfix notations, parentheses surrounding groups of operands and operators are necessary to indicate the intended order in which operations are to be performed. In the absence of parentheses, certain precedence rules determine the order of operations. These are explained in the order of operations article.

[edit] See also

postfix notation, also called Reverse Polish notation
prefix notation, also called Polish notation
Shunting yard algorithm, used to convert infix notation to postfix notation or to a tree