Question

We’re all familiar with the pre- and post-increment operators, e.g.

c++;    // c = c + 1 ++c;    // ditto 

and the ‘combined operators’ which extend this principle:

c += 5;    // c = c + 5 s .= ', world';    // s = s . ', world'; e.g. PHP 

I’ve often had a need for a ‘post-combined operator’, which would allow:

s =. 'Hello ';    // s = 'Hello ' . s 

Obviously, this is only really useful with non-commutable operators and the meaning is altered from pre-/post-increment, even though the syntax is borrowed.

Are you aware of any language that offers such an operator, and why isn’t it more common?

Answer 1

A basic objection to the example as-given is that it’d create ambiguity:

a=-5;    //'a = -5' or 'a =- 5'? b=*p;    //'b = *p' or 'b =* p'? c=.5;    //'c = .5' or 'c =. 5'? 

Edit: But no, I’m not aware of any languages that use them. Presumably this is because they were omitted from C from whence most other languages derive their basic operators.

And yeah, I’d love to see them in the languages I use.