Infix notation is the notation commonly used in arithmetic and most programming languages, where operators are placed between operands. While infix notation is intuitive for simple expressions, it can become ambiguous and hard to read for complex expressions with multiple operators, leading to the invention of prefix (Polish) and postfix (Reverse Polish) notations.

How to use it in a sentence

• I wish the PM would stop trying to impress us with technical jargon - yesterday he actually said "the AI model will use infix notation to represent mathematical expressions" like that was some profound insight. 🙄

• "Um, actually, that equation is using infix notation," I said, pushing up my glasses, as the intern struggled to understand why 3 + 4 * 5 wasn't the same as (3 + 4) * 5 in the legacy codebase.

If you actually want to learn more...

• Infix, Prefix and Postfix Notations - This article explains the differences between infix, prefix, and postfix notations with examples of how to convert between them. It's a good overview if you never really understood the difference.

• Algorithm for converting Infix notation to Postfix notation - If you need to implement an expression evaluator and want to avoid the complexities of parsing infix notation, this tutorial shows how to convert infix to postfix programmatically. Because sometimes a problem is only hard until you change how you look at it.

• Reverse Polish Notation - Already comfortable with infix notation but want to show off your HP calculator street cred? This deep dive into Reverse Polish notation will have you saying "postfix 4 lyfe" and making your coworkers uncomfortable in no time.

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