Operator Precedence

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Overview¶

Java will evaluate operators it finds in each expression.

Operator Hints¶

In general, it is best to use parenthesis () to clarify expressions, rather than rely on operator precedence, but here are additional resources on operator precedence:

However, rather than rely on operator precedence in a case like: if (a < b && c > d)

you could clarify it explicitly as: if ((a < b) && (c > d))

Now it is explicitly clear that the result is the AND of the two comparisons.

Operator Precedence¶

Operators in Java take precedence (priority) in the following order:

Generics¶

Symbol	Operation
++	Pre or post increment
--	Pre or post decrement
+,-	Unary operators for sign
~	Bitwirse Complement
!	Logical NOT
(type)	Any type conversion

Mathematics - MDM¶

Symbol	Operation
*	Multiplication
/	Divison
%	Modulo

Mathematics - AS¶

Symbol	Operation
+	Addition
-	Subtraction

String Concatenation¶

Symbol	Operation
+	String Concatenation

Bitwise - Shifts¶

Symbol	Operation
<<	Bitwise, shift left
>>	Bitwise, shift right, sign extension
>>>	Bitwise, shift right, zero extension

Comparisons¶

Symbol	Operation
<. <=, >, >=	Comparisons
instanceof	Type Identification

Equality¶

These only work on primitives, they do not work against classes. For classes, use thing[1].equals("")

Symbol	Operation
==	Equality
!+	Inequality

Bitwise - Comparisons¶

Symbol	Operation
&	Bitwise, AND
^	Bitwise, X OR
\|	Bitwise, OR

Logical - Comparisons¶

Symbol	Operation
&&	Logical AND
\|\|	Logical OR

Ternary¶

Symbol	Operation
?:	Conditional ternary operator

Assignments¶

Symbol	Operation
=, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=, <<=, >>=, >>>=, &=, \|=, ^=	Assignment Operators