Arithmetic order of operations

When using arithmetic operators, it's important to understand the order of operations, as the compiler uses a specific format to determine this order.

So, what does this order mean for a problem/equation?

Let's say that we need to run an equation with all these operators, but in a different order. For example: 5 + 15 * 20 - 2 / 6 ** 3 - (3 + 1).

In the preceding problem, we have all the six operations included. If we run this code, it gives a value of 301.

To break it down, the compiler first looked for the parentheses, so it computed the value (3+1), which is 4. Then, it handled the exponent 6**3, which is 216. Next is multiplication, so 15 * 20 is 300. Now, for division, 2/216 will be equal to 0(it's not really zero, but we'll discuss this in the next section). Next, it focuses on addition, 5 + 300 which equals 305. And lastly subtraction: 305 - 4 which equals 301.

You can see the step-by-step path here:

5 + 15 * 20 - 2 / 6 ** 3 - (3 + 1)  # parenthesis
5 + 15...