Raghavendra Mudugal (2/6/2013)
so, if no brackets then just start from L to R no matter what the operator is...
Almost... If there are no brackets, use BODMAS to work out the order, and work from left to right within each category, e.g.:
12 + 3 x 8 / 6
Divide and Multiply (DM) before Add and Subtract (AS), so
12 + 24 / 6
12 + 4
16
Within the Divide and Multiply section, you could do the divide before the multiply to give the same result:
12 + 3 x 8 / 6 = 12 + 3 / 6 x 8
12 + 0.5 x 8
12 + 4
16
But it's simpler to just work from left to right within each BODMAS category, and better to remove all ambiguity with brackets anyway.