In C, the precedence table specify the order of evaluation of expression and also specify the association rules. Using that rule we can evaluate the equal priority operator(R->L OR L->R) in a expression.
You specify,
a = 1;
x = a++ + ++a;
1: ++a then exp: a(2)++ + 2 = 4 assign to x
2: and then increment a , becomes a = 3
suppose, a = a++ + ++a; then
increment a
2 + 2 assign to a(4).
increment a(5).