What is the name of this operator: “--”?

The title is missing a >. Should be "-->"

Could someone break this down and explain it to me? [1] It looks hilariously atrocious yet interesting at the same time.<p>[1]: <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1642028/what-is-the-name-of-this-operator/2860927#2860927" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1642028/what-is-the-name-...</a>

From the thread:<p><pre><code> while (x --\ \ \ \ &#62; 0) printf("%d ", x); </code></pre> That's fantastic!

This looks mostly like a function that sacrificed readability for brevity, to the detriment of at least one reader.

Decrement x = x -1