Java Increment/Decrement Operators: Prefix vs. Postfix – What's the Difference?

Java: Prefix/Postfix of Increment/Decrement Operators

In Java, increment and decrement operators can be used in two ways: prefix or postfix. The difference between the two lies in the order of evaluation.

Prefix vs. Postfix

Prefix:

In prefix notation, the operator is placed before the variable being modified.

++variable

Postfix:

In postfix notation, the operator is placed after the variable being modified.

variable++

Behavior

The behavior of prefix and postfix operators differs in one key aspect:

• Prefix: The variable is incremented or decremented before its value is used in an expression.
• Postfix: The variable is used in an expression before it is incremented or decremented.

Example

Let's consider this code snippet:

int i = 5;
System.out.println(++i); //6
System.out.println(i++); //6 (i = 7, prints 6)
System.out.println(i); //7

Prefix (i to i):

In the first line, i prefixes the increment operator. This means:

• Increment i by 1 (5 1 = 6).
• Then, print the result (6).

Therefore, "6" is printed.

Postfix (i to i ):

In the second line, i postfixes the increment operator. This means:

• Use the current value of i (6) in the expression.
• Then, increment i by 1 (7).

Therefore, "6" is printed again, but i has been incremented to 7.

The third line simply prints the updated value of i, which is now 7.

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