1.2.5.2 Expressions

An expression is an instruction or set of instructions that results in a value of some kind. Take +, for example. It uses two other expressions to make up a result. A variable is an expression since it yields its contents as a result. The combination of the following two expressions and an operator is a valid expression: a + b, a and b being variables (expressions) and + being the operator used on them. a = b + c; is a full statement ending in a ;.

Function calls are valid expressions. They are written simply as the name followed by a set of matched parentheses with the arguments that the functions uses listed inside. Take the simple function max() for example, that returns the max of the two arguments. To determine the maximum of 4 and 10, you would write max(4, 10) as the expression. Naturally the result must be either stored or used.