#1,074 – Use Parentheses in Expressions to Make Code More Readable

In the absence of parentheses within an expression, operator precedence and associativity dictate how the expression will be evaluated. Technically, you only need parentheses in the expression if you want the expression to be evaluated differently, relative to the precedence and associativity rules.

If your expression doesn’t require parentheses in order to evaluate correctly, it’s often still a good idea to include them.  The parentheses will typically improve the readability of the expression because they make the evaluation order more clear.

            // This is tough to read
            int i5 = 1 + 10 / 5 * 2 - 12 / 4 + 24 % 5 / 2 * 4;

            // This is a bit better
            i5 = 1 + ((10 / 5) * 2) - (12 / 4) + (((24 % 5) / 2) * 4);