How do the post increment (i++) and pre increment (++i) operators work in Java?

Question

Can you explain to me the output of this Java code?

int a=5,i;

i=++a + ++a + a++;
i=a++ + ++a + ++a;
a=++a + ++a + a++;

System.out.println(a);
System.out.p         


        

Answer 1

++a increments a before it is evaluated. a++ evaluates a and then increments it.

Related to your expression given:

i = ((++a) + (++a) + (a++)) == ((6) + (7) + (7)); // a is 8 at the end
i = ((a++) + (++a) + (++a)) == ((5) + (7) + (8)); // a is 8 at the end

The parenteses I used above are implicitly used by Java. If you look at the terms this way you can easily see, that they are both the same as they are commutative.