a += a++ * a++ * a++ in Java. How does it get evaluated?

Question

I came across this problem in this website, and tried it in Eclipse but couldn\'t understand how exactly they are evaluated.

    int x = 3, y = 7, z = 4;

          


        

Answer 1

The postfix operator x++ means something like "give me the value of x now, but increment it for future references"

So, by the order of operations and evaluation,

x++ * x++ * x++

is interpreted first as

3 * 4 * 5 (=60)

Which is then added to the original 3, yielding 63.

The original value is used because it's on the same line, had you written something like:

int x = 3;

int y += x++ * x++ * x++; 
x += y;

x would now be 66, instead of 63 because the x in the second line is now 6, rather than its original 3.