The precedence of java boolean

Question

&& is supposed to have higher precedence than ||:

    int a = 10;
    System.out.println(a==10 || --a==9 && a==8);
    System.out.println(a);

this prints true, and 10. It seems that it checks only the first part and if its true the second never executes.

If I do a==9 then the second part seems to evaluate and prints 9. Can someone explain why this is happening? Isn't && supposed to evaluate first?

Edit: I see it. a==10 || --a==9 && a==8 transforms into (a==10) || (a==9 && a==8) So if the first one evaluates to true it short circuits. Thank you for your help guys.

@gtgaxiola Careful when you say no precedence. If there was no precedence. If there was no precedence that expression would evaluate to true. — Cruncher, Aug 28 '14 at 13:11

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 28 '14 at 13:15

System.out.println(a==10 ||  --a==9 && a==8);

equal to

System.out.println((a==10) ||  (((--a)==9) && (a==8)));

Java evaluates || first. Find out that left part (a==10) is true and derive that no mater what is in right part result anyway will be true

PS: it is common trick to write

if(obj != null && obj.isSomething) { ... }

to prevent NPE

CocoNess · Answer 2 · 2014-09-15T07:39:36.300

If you evaluate (a==10) || (b == 9) (which is an OR operation), if the first clause is true, then the entire expression must be true (because it's OR) and the second clause will not be executed for reasons of optimization.

Code is executed from left to right, so you'll hit the first TRUE therefore your entire statement will be TRUE, and the remainder of your statement will not be executed

If your first clause is false, then only will the second clause be evaluated.

If you use (a==10) | (b == 9) both clauses will be evaluated.

If you want to be certain of the precedence of your operators, you should use brackets

Cruncher · Answer 3 · 2014-08-28T13:22:23.503

It's useful to look at expressions as trees.

a==10 ||  --a==9 && a==8

In this example, the top of the tree is an OR. The left branch is an EQUALS, and the right branch is an AND whose left and right branch are both EQUALS.

Since I'm awful at graphics, it would look something like:

    OR
   /   \-----
  =          \
 / \         AND
a  10       /   \
           =     =
          / \   / \
       --a   9 a   8

The "precedence" that you're talking about, orders this tree. But it doesn't necessarily change execution order. Because in this case, this is true if the first branch is true, so no need to check the second branch.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 28 '14 at 13:15

It doesn't have anything to do with higher precedence in this case. Look up lazy evaluation. The operation will be evaluated from left to right and will find that a==10 is true and stop there.

Look at the comments in http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/11precedence/ under order of evaluation

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 28 '14 at 14:27

 || and && are short circuit operators they don't evaluate the right hand side expression 
 if the left hand side is true.
 So (--a) is never executed as (a==10) left hand side is true
 Therefore the value of a remains same.
 **& and | operators that always evaluate both sides.

The precedence of java boolean

5 Answers5