Shortcut to assign a negative value to primitives

Question

I remember reading somewhere in Java, possibly Oracle documentation that there is a shortcut to assign a flip value of a primitive.

Similar to:

int i = 0;
i += 3;
System.out.println(i);

Output is 3, but what if I wanted -3? Or if given -3, make it positive 3? Rather than doing

i = -i;

Isn't there a shortcut to do it in just the assignment operator?

`i *= -1;` is a valid one too ;) – Hugo Sousa Feb 03 '14 at 23:57 — Hugo Sousa, Feb 03 '14 at 23:57

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 03 '14 at 23:57

2

You have lots of options:

i = -3;
i += -3;
i -= 3;

Or even

i = 3;
System.out.println("-" + i);

answered Feb 03 '14 at 23:57

rgettman

`` murders a kitten every time someone writes code like the last one. – bcrist Feb 03 '14 at 23:59
@bcrist I have to say, the code is terrible, but also oddly amusing. – Nick Humrich Feb 04 '14 at 00:01
1

Oh, if we're putting up bad options, how about `i = (~i)+1`? :D – yshavit Feb 04 '14 at 00:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '14 at 00:05

1

If you want to reverse the sign of a number you can do one of the following things:

i *= -1;
i = -i;

answered Feb 04 '14 at 00:05

BitNinja

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 03 '14 at 23:59

0

int i = -3; is your easiest solution

answered Feb 03 '14 at 23:59

peter.petrov

3 Answers3