# Smilies Right-Associative? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 26, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894 "2002-05-26T06:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/1 "2002-05-26T06:52:49Z")
It certainly seems so. For example: (:rolleyes:) produces a malformed token (:rolleyes with a grin smilie at the end. Given the left-associative nature of English (we read left-to-right), this is the Wrong Thing. My example _should_ produce a rolleyes smilie encased in parenthesis, as (: is not a valid token. Is this universally true given all combinations of smilies? Is there an easy way to fix this? ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2002, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/2 "2002-05-26T17:23:25Z")
It’s not that it’s right-associative, it’s just that any combination of characters in your post that _can_ produce a smiley _will_ produce a smiley. The lesson to be learned from your example, I think, is that the ascii-graphic type smileys take precedence over the smileys with codes that are words, and the vB software checks for them first. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/3 "2002-05-27T07:57:54Z")
Test: (:rolleyes:) Test: (:rolleyes:\*\*) Two ways that I can tell (tested on IE 5.5 in Windows 95), neither of which is particularly easy: (:rolleyes:) (:rolleyes:\*\*) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/4 "2002-05-27T15:13:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > Is this universally true given all combinations of smilies? Is there an easy way to fix this? a) Don’t know. b) Not without modifying the source code, which we don’t do. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/5 "2002-05-28T04:15:36Z")
:rolleyes:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/6 "2002-05-28T04:17:34Z")
Looks like they are left-associative, but 🙂 has higher presidence than :rolleyes:. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/7 "2002-05-28T05:16:46Z")
I think this has been done before, and a precedence was worked out. Probably goes through the text searching for one token at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smilies-right-associative/110894/8 "2002-05-28T05:58:18Z")
OK. Left-associative, but with precedence rules. Interesting enough to keep a geek happy. 🙂 Thanks. Test zone: :wally:rolleyes: