<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Expressions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Expressions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Expressions (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="up" title="Top"> <link href="Index-Expressions.html#Index-Expressions" rel="next" title="Index Expressions"> <link href="Status-of-Variables.html#Status-of-Variables" rel="prev" title="Status of Variables"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="octave.css"> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="Expressions"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Evaluation.html#Evaluation" accesskey="n" rel="next">Evaluation</a>, Previous: <a href="Variables.html#Variables" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Variables</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="Expressions-1"></a> <h2 class="chapter">8 Expressions</h2> <a name="index-expressions"></a> <p>Expressions are the basic building block of statements in Octave. An expression evaluates to a value, which you can print, test, store in a variable, pass to a function, or assign a new value to a variable with an assignment operator. </p> <p>An expression can serve as a statement on its own. Most other kinds of statements contain one or more expressions which specify data to be operated on. As in other languages, expressions in Octave include variables, array references, constants, and function calls, as well as combinations of these with various operators. </p> <table class="menu" border="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Index-Expressions.html#Index-Expressions" accesskey="1">Index Expressions</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Calling-Functions.html#Calling-Functions" accesskey="2">Calling Functions</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Arithmetic-Ops.html#Arithmetic-Ops" accesskey="3">Arithmetic Ops</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Comparison-Ops.html#Comparison-Ops" accesskey="4">Comparison Ops</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Boolean-Expressions.html#Boolean-Expressions" accesskey="5">Boolean Expressions</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Assignment-Ops.html#Assignment-Ops" accesskey="6">Assignment Ops</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Increment-Ops.html#Increment-Ops" accesskey="7">Increment Ops</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Operator-Precedence.html#Operator-Precedence" accesskey="8">Operator Precedence</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top"> </td></tr> </table> </body> </html>