Why does the “or” go before the “and”?

Question

int it=9, at=9;

if(it>4 || ++at>10 && it>0)  
{
    System.out.print(\"stuff\");    
}

System.out.print(at);

prints out stuff9 a

Answer 1

Your compound expression is equivalent to

if(it>4 || (++at>10 && it>0))  

due to Java operator precedence rules. The operands of || are evaluated left to right, so it>4 is evaluated first, which is true, so the rest of it (the entire && subexpression) doesn't need to be evaluated at all (and so at does not change).