Why do C and C++ allow the expression (int) + 4*5?
The +
here is unary +
operator, not the binary addition operator. There's no addition happening here.
Also, the syntax (int)
is used for typecasting.
You can re-read that statement as
(int) (+ 4) * 5;
which is parsed as
((int) (+ 4)) * (5);
which says,
- Apply the unary
+
operator on the integer constant value4
. - typecast to an
int
- multiply with operand
5
This is similar to (int) (- 4) * (5);
, where the usage of the unary operator is more familiar.
In your case, the unary +
and the cast to int
- both are redundant.
This is interpreted as ((int)(+4)) * 5
. That is, an expression +4
(a unary plus operator applied to a literal 4
), cast to type int
with a C-style cast, and the result multiplied by 5
.