Associative means that the order in which operators are applied doesn’t matter. For example:
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)
This means that it doesn’t matter if we add a and b first or if we add b and c first, we still get the same answer.
Commutative means that the order of the operands can change without changing the result. For example:
a * b = b * a
This means that * is commutative. However:
a / b ≠ b / a
Which means that / is not commutative.
Here are some simple examples:
- 3 * 4 = 12
- 4 * 3 = 12
- 6 / 2 = 3
- 2 / 6 = ⅓