Final answer:
Short-circuit evaluation for "and" means that if the first operand is false, the rest are not evaluated because the result is guaranteed to be false. For "or," if the first operand is true, additional operands are not evaluated because the result is already known to be true. This makes logical expression evaluation more efficient.
Step-by-step explanation:
Short-circuit evaluation with the "and" and "or" operators is a concept in programming where logical expressions are evaluated in the most efficient way possible. For the "and" operator, this means that if the first operand is false, the entire expression is guaranteed to be false, and therefore the rest of the operands are not evaluated. Similarly, for the "or" operator, if the first operand is true, the entire expression must be true, thus the subsequent operands are not evaluated.
For example, consider the statement if (a == 0 && b/c > 1). Here, if a is not equal to zero, there's no need to evaluate b/c because the expression cannot be true regardless of its value. This is efficient because it prevents potentially unnecessary or error-prone computations, such as a division by zero.
In a case with the "or" operator, such as if (x > 5 || y < 10), if x is greater than 5, the outcome is immediately true, and it does not matter what y is, hence y < 10 is not evaluated.