In Java, operators have a specific precedence and associativity, which determine the order in which they are evaluated in an expression. Precedence refers to the priority of an operator, while associativity refers to the direction in which operators with the same precedence are evaluated.
Here’s a brief explanation of the precedence and associativity of operators in Java:
- Precedence: Operators with higher precedence are evaluated first. For example, multiplication has a higher precedence than addition.
Here’s the precedence order (from highest to lowest):
- Postfix operators (++, –)
- Unary operators (+, -, ++, –, !, ~)
- Multiplication, division, and modulus (*, /, %)
- Addition and subtraction (+, -)
- Shift operators (<<, >>, >>>)
- Relational operators (<, <=, >, >=, instanceof)
- Equality operators (==, !=)
- Bitwise AND (&)
- Bitwise XOR (^)
- Bitwise OR (|)
- Logical AND (&&)
- Logical OR (||)
- Ternary operator (?:)
- Assignment operators (=, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=, &=, ^=, |=, <<=, >>=, >>>=)
- Associativity: Operators with the same precedence are evaluated based on their associativity. The associativity can be left-to-right or right-to-left.
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Left-to-right associativity: Operators with left-to-right associativity are evaluated from left to right. For example, in the expression
a + b - c
, the addition operation is evaluated first, followed by the subtraction operation. -
Right-to-left associativity: Operators with right-to-left associativity are evaluated from right to left. The only operator in Java with right-to-left associativity is the assignment operator (=).