Post Increment Operator Question

Question

I had written a small program to test the working of Post increment operator.
public static void main(String[] args)
     int a = 4;
     a = a++;
     System.out.println ( a );
I expected the output to be '5', but the output given is '4'.
Can anyone tell me to how this works in Java ?

Answer 1

There is a big difference between a++ and ++a.
a++ means increment a AFTER you have performed the line.
++a mean increment a BEFORE you perform the line.
class Test
public static void main(String[] args)
int a = 4;
a = ++a; //returns a = 5
// a = a++; //returns a = 4
//a++; //returns a = 5
//++a; //returns a = 5
System.out.println ( a );
}