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

Does this help?

a = 5;
i=++a + ++a + a++; =>
i=6 + 7 + 7; (a=8)

a = 5;
i=a++ + ++a + ++a; =>
i=5 + 7 + 8; (a=8)

The main point is that ++a increments the value and immediately returns it.

a++ also increments the value (in the background) but returns unchanged value of the variable - what looks like it is executed later.

Answer 2

++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.