1.5 Cast ()
Persuades compiler to allow certain assignments. Extensive
checking is done at compile and runtime to ensure type-safety.
2. Arithmetic operators - *, /, %, +, -
Can be applied to all numeric types.
Can be applied to only the numeric types, except '+' - it
can be applied to Strings as well.
All arithmetic operations are done at least with 'int'. (If
types are smaller, promotion happens. Result will be of a type
at least as wide as the wide type of operands)
Accuracy is lost silently when arithmetic overflow/error
occurs. Result is a nonsense value.
Integer division by zero throws an exception.
% - reduce the magnitude of LHS by the magnitude of RHS.
(continuous subtraction)
% - sign of the result entirely determined by sign of LHS
5 % 0 throws an ArithmeticException.
Floating point calculations can produce NaN (square root
of a negative no) or Infinity ( division by zero). Float and
Double wrapper classes have named constants for NaN and infinities.
NaN's are non-ordinal for comparisons. x == Float.NaN won't
work. Use Float.IsNaN(x) But equals method on wrapper objects(Double
or Float) with NaN values compares Nan's correctly.
Infinities are ordinal. X == Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY will
give expected result.
+ also performs String concatenation (when any operand in
an expression is a String). The language itself overloads this
operator. toString method of non-String object operands are
called to perform concatenation. In case of primitives, a wrapper
object is created with the primitive value and toString method
of that object is called. ("Vel" + 3 will work.)
Be aware of associativity when multiple operands are involved.
System.out.println( 1 + 2 + "3" ); // Prints 33
System.out.println( "1" + 2 + 3 ); // Prints 123
3. Shift operators - <<, >>, >>>
<< performs a signed left shift. 0 bits are brought
in from the right. Sign bit (MSB) is preserved. Value becomes
old value * 2 ^ x where x is no of bits shifted.
>> performs a signed right shift. Sign bit is brought
in from the left. (0 if positive, 1 if negative. Value becomes
old value / 2 ^ x where x is no of bits shifted. Also called
arithmetic right shift.
>>> performs an unsigned logical right shift. 0
bits are brought in from the left. This operator exists since
Java doesn't provide an unsigned data type (except char). >>>
changes the sign of a negative number to be positive. So don't
use it with negative numbers, if you want to preserve the sign.
Also don't use it with types smaller than int. (Since types
smaller than int are promoted to an int before any shift operation
and the result is cast down again, so the end result is unpredictable.)
Shift operators can be applied to only integral types.
-1 >> 1 is -1, not 0. This differs from simple division
by 2. We can think of it as shift operation rounding down.
1 << 31 will become the minimum value that an int can
represent. (Value becomes negative, after this operation, if
you do a signed right shift sign bit is brought in from the
left and the value remains negative.)
Negative numbers are represented in two's complement notation.
(Take one's complement and add 1 to get two's complement)
Shift operators never shift more than the number of bits
the type of result can have. ( i.e. int 32, long 64) RHS operand
is reduced to RHS % x where x is no of bits in type of result.
int x;
x = x >> 33; // Here actually what happens is x >> 1
4. Comparison operators - all return boolean type.
4.1 Ordinal comparisons - <, <=, > , >=
Only operate on numeric types. Test the relative value of
the numeric operands.
Arithmetic promotions apply. char can be compared to float.
4.2 Object type comparison - instanceof
Tests the class of an object at runtime. Checking is done
at compile and runtime same as the cast operator.
Returns true if the object denoted by LHS reference can be
cast to RHS type.
LHS should be an object reference expression, variable or
an array reference.
RHS should be a class (abstract classes are fine), an interface
or an array type, castable to LHS object reference. Compiler
error if LHS & RHS are unrelated.
Can't use java.lang.Class or its String name as RHS.
Returns true if LHS is a class or subclass of RHS class
Returns true if LHS implements RHS interface.
Returns true if LHS is an array reference and of type RHS.
x instanceof Component[]-legal.
x instanceof [] - illegal. Can't test for 'any array of any
type'
Returns false if LHS is null, no exceptions are thrown.
If x instanceof Y is not allowed by compiler, then Y y =
(Y) x is not a valid cast expression. If x instanceof Y is allowed
and returns false, the above cast is valid but throws a ClassCastException
at runtime. If x instanceof Y returns true, the above cast is
valid and runs fine.
4.3 Equality comparisons - ==, !=
For primitives it's a straightforward value comparison. (promotions
apply)
For object references, this doesn't make much sense. Use
equals method for meaningful comparisons. (Make sure that the
class implements equals in a meaningful way, like for X.equals(Y)
to be true, Y instance of X must be true as well)
For String literals, == will return true, this is because
of compiler optimization.
5. Bit-wise operators - &, ^, |
Operate on numeric and boolean operands.
& - AND operator, both bits must be 1 to produce 1.
| - OR operator, any one bit can be 1 to produce 1.
^ - XOR operator, any one bit can be 1, but not both, to
produce 1.
In case of booleans true is 1, false is 0.
Can't cast any other type to boolean.
6. Short-circuit logical operators - &&,
||
Operate only on boolean types.
RHS might not be evaluated (hence the name short-circuit),
if the result can be determined only by looking at LHS.
false && X is always false.
true || X is always true.
RHS is evaluated only if the result is not certain from the
LHS.
That's why there's no logical XOR operator. Both bits need
to be known to calculate the result.
Short-circuiting doesn't change the result of the operation.
But side effects might be changed. (i.e. some statements in
RHS might not be executed, if short-circuit happens. Be careful)
7. Ternary operator
Format a = x ? b : c ;
x should be a boolean expression.
Based on x, either b or c is evaluated. Both are never evaluated.
b will be assigned to a if x is true, else c is assigned
to a.
b and c should be assignment compatible to a.
b and c are made identical during the operation according
to promotions.
8. Assignment operators
Simple assignment =.
op= calculate and assign operators(extended assignment operators)
*=, /=, %=, +=, -=
x += y means x = x + y. But x is evaluated only once. Be
aware.
Assignment of reference variables copies the reference value,
not the object body.
Assignment has value, value of LHS after assignment. So a
= b = c = 0 is legal. c = 0 is executed first, and the value
of the assignment (0) assigned to b, then the value of that
assignment (again 0) is assigned to a.
Extended assignment operators do an implicit cast. (Useful
when applied to byte, short or char)
byte b = 10;
b = b + 10; // Won't compile, explicit cast required since the expression evaluates to an int
b += 10; // OK, += does an implicit cast from int to byte
9. General
In Java, No overflow or underflow of integers happens. i.e.
The values wrap around. Adding 1 to the maximum int value results
in the minimum value.
Always keep in mind that operands are evaluated from left
to right, and the operations are executed in the order of precedence
and associativity.
Unary Postfix operators and all binary operators (except
assignment operators) have left to right assoiciativity.
All unary operators (except postfix operators), assignment
operators, ternary operator, object creation and cast operators
have right to left assoiciativity.
Inspect the following code.
public class Precedence {
final public static void main(String args[]) {
int i = 0;
i = i++;
i = i++;
i = i++;
System.out.println(i); // prints 0, since = operator has the lowest precedence.
int array[] = new int[5];
int index = 0;
array[index] = index = 3; // 1st element gets assigned to 3, not the 4th element
for (int c = 0; c < array.length; c++)
System.out.println(array[c]);
System.out.println("index is " + index); // prints 3
}
}
| Type of Operators |
Operators |
Associativity |
| Postfix operators |
[] . (parameters) ++ -- |
Left to Right |
| Prefix Unary operators |
-- + - ~ ! |
Right to Left |
| Object creation and cast |
new (type) |
Right to Left |
| Multiplication/Division/Modulus |
* / % |
Left to Right |
| Addition/Subtraction |
+ - |
Left to Right |
| Shift |
>> >>> << |
Left to Right |
| Relational |
< <= > >= instanceof |
Left to Right |
| Equality |
== != |
Left to Right |
| Bit-wise/Boolean AND |
& |
Left to Right |
| Bit-wise/Boolean XOR |
^ |
Left to Right |
| Bit-wise/Boolean OR |
| |
Left to Right |
| Logical AND (Short-circuit or Conditional) |
&& |
Left to Right |
| Logical OR (Short-circuit or Conditional) |
|| |
Left to Right |
| Ternary |
? : |
Right to Left |
| Assignment |
= += -= *= /= %= <<= >>= >>>= &=
^= |= |
Right to Left |
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