ternary operator

[pete hesse]

This question comes from Jamie Jaworski's book "Java 2 Certification":
What is the value displayed by the following program?
class Question {
public static void main (string[] args) {
int x = 0;
boolean b1, b2, b3, b4;
b1 = b2 = b3 = b4 = true;
x = (b1 | b2 & b3 ^ b4) ? x++: --x;
System.out.println(x);
}
}
A. -1
B. 0
C. 1
D. 2
The correct answer is B. I ran the code and verified it. Would someone explain to me why the answer isn't 1? Isn't the variable x the same variable that both receives the result of the ternary expression and is incremented inside the ternary expression afterwords?
The order of events as I understand it are as follows
- ternary expression evaluates to true
- current value of x (0) is returned to x
- x is incremented to 1
- x is printed
What am I missing here? Please help out a confused beginner. Thanks.

[SRINI VASAN]

Hai friend,
The answer to your question is quit simple.
when you try to execute a code like below
int x =0;
x=x++;
The value stored in x is 0 than 1. This is because in the above assignment the value value incremented is not assigned to x , rather the original value.
i guess u are convinced :-)

Regards,
Srini

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by pete hesse:
This question comes from Jamie Jaworski's book "Java 2 Certification":
What is the value displayed by the following program?
class Question {
public static void main (string[] args) {
int x = 0;
boolean b1, b2, b3, b4;
b1 = b2 = b3 = b4 = true;
x = (b1 | b2 & b3 ^ b4) ? x++: --x;
System.out.println(x);
}
}
A. -1
B. 0
C. 1
D. 2
The correct answer is B. I ran the code and verified it. Would someone explain to me why the answer isn't 1? Isn't the variable x the same variable that both receives the result of the ternary expression and is incremented inside the ternary expression afterwords?
The order of events as I understand it are as follows
- ternary expression evaluates to true
- current value of x (0) is returned to x
- x is incremented to 1
- x is printed
What am I missing here? Please help out a confused beginner. Thanks.

Hi,
This is how I understand what happens.
int x=0;
x=x++;
x Starts with 0
The right hand side of the = is evaluated (++ is post increment, so x is not incremented yet)
0 is put into a storage area which I will call - Store.
x is then incremented to 1 (because of ++).
Lastly, Store is assigned to x which sets x back to 0.
In code form this could also help to explain what is happening
int x=0;
int y;
y=x;
x++;
x=y;
Hope this helps.
Guy

[pete hesse]

Thanks for the info. What you are saying makes sense, but if the order of events does go this way, then it contradicts the "postfix" implication!
- put current value in temp storage
- increment x
- return value in temp storage
I always assumed that
x = x++
was redundant, and never bothered to verify it, since the java documentation implies this. But we all know what happens when we assume!
Thanks for clarifying.
Pete

[Anonymous]

Hi,
This question is for the conception of bitwise procedure:
x =(b1 | b2 & b3 ^ b4)
=(b1 | ((b2 & b3) ^ b4))=true;
=======================================
class Question {
public static void main (string[] args) {
int x = 0;
boolean b1, b2, b3, b4;
b1 = b2 = b3 = b4 = true;
x = (b1 | b2 & b3 ^ b4) ? x++: --x;
System.out.println(x);
}
}
A. -1
B. 0
C. 1
D. 2
The correct answer is B. I ran the code and verified it. Would someone explain to me why the answer isn't 1? Isn't the variable x the same variable that both receives the result of the ternary expression and is incremented inside the ternary expression afterwords?
The order of events as I understand it are as follows
- ternary expression evaluates to true
- current value of x (0) is returned to x
- x is incremented to 1
- x is printed
What am I missing here? Please help out a confused beginner. Thanks.[/B]

[pete hesse]

Hi javardousoguru,
You've lost me. Are you asking a question?

[Mapraputa Is]

about i=i++ problem
Actually, postfix increment operator has precedence level 2, and assignment operator = has precedence level 15. So.
i = i++;
must be equal
tempVar = i++;
i = tempVar;
and if i was initially 3, it has to become 4.
But even if to interepret i = i++; as
i = i;
i++;
it still has to be 4.
Could some Java expert explain, why is it 3 ???