The difference between += and =+

Question

I\'ve misplaced += with =+ one too many times, and I think I keep forgetting because I don\'t know the difference between these two, only that one

Answer 1

It's simple.

x += 1 is the same as x = x + 1 while

x =+ 1 will make x have the value of (positive) one

Answer 2

+= is a compound assignment operator - it adds the RHS operand to the existing value of the LHS operand.

=+ is just the assignment operator followed by the unary + operator. It sets the value of the LHS operand to the value of the RHS operand:

int x = 10;

x += 10; // x = x + 10; i.e. x = 20

x =+ 5; // Equivalent to x = +5, so x = 5.