Learn English – Operator, operand – term for the result

latinprogrammingterminologyword-choice

How the result may be called when applying an operator to its operands?

In eg. programming one may be familiar with a so-called "expression" like this one from a SO question:

x>y && z==5

The meaning and the exact way of calculating this expression is up to interpretation.

Without getting into the mess, if one knows that

  • > and && and == are called "operators", and are what is called "binary operators" in particular,
  • x, y, z and 5 are "operands", and are said to be the "initial operands",
  • saying that "x>y and z==5 are operands to the operator &&" is in accordance with what is called the "evaluation order" and "operator precedence" that belongs to the particular interpretation,
  • the intended interpretation is not totally screwed up like a troll language, so for example x and y are belonging to >

then you see I don't know how the result of x>5 could be called.

Does it have a name? If an operator operates on an operand, you get a – what?

Best Answer

There is no special term for the output of an operator analogous to the special term for an input (operand), at least not in common use.

Per the Wikipedia article on operators:

The values combined are called operands, arguments, or inputs, and the value produced is called the value, result, or output.

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