Is the left-to-right order of operations guaranteed in Java?

Question

Consider this function:

public static final int F(int a, int b) {
    a = a - 1 + b;
    // and some stuff
    return a;
}

Is it required

Answer 1

Yes:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/expressions.html#15.7

The JVM will intepret

x = input - 1 + q;

as

x = (input - 1) + q;