Chapter 3: Operators

Lecture Outline
• What operators are
• Arithmetic Operators such as +, -
• Assignment Operator
• Increment/Decrement Operators e.g i++
• Relational Operators
• Conditional Operators

2
 What are Operators?
• Operators are special symbols used for:
- mathematical functions
- assignment statements
- logical comparisons

• Examples of operators:
3+5 // uses + operator
14 + 5 – 4 * (5 – 3) // uses +, -, *
operators
• Expressions can be combinations of variables,
primitives and operators that result in a value

3
 The Operator Groups
• There are 5 different groups of
operators:
- Arithmetic Operators
- Assignment Operator
- Increment / Decrement
Operators
- Relational Operators
- Conditional Operators

• The following slides will explain the

different groups in more detail.
4
 Arithmetic Operators
• Java has 6 basic arithmetic
operators+: add
- subtract
*
/ multiply
% divide
^ modulo (remainder)
exponent (to the power of)
• The order of operations (or precedence)
when evaluating an expression can
be summarized in the acronym
PEMDAS.
5
 Order Of Operations
• Order of Operations (PEMDAS)
1. Parentheses
2. Exponents
3. Multiplication and Division from left to right
4. Addition and Subtraction from left to right

• An easy way to remember this is:

“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” !

6
 Order of Operations (Cont’d)
• Example: 10 + 15 / 5;

• The result is different depending on whether

the addition or division is performed first
(10 + 15) / 5 = 5
10 + (15 / 5) = 13

Without parentheses, Java will choose the

second case

• Note: you should be explicit and use

parentheses to avoid confusion

7
 Integer Division
• In the previous example, we were lucky
that (10 + 15) / 5 gives an exact
integer answer (5).

• But what if we divide 63 by 35?

• Depending on the data types of the
variables that store the numbers, we will
get different results.

8
 Integer Division (Cont’d)
• int i = 63;
= 35;
int j
System.out.println(i / j);
Output: 1

• double x = 63;
double y = 35;
System.out.println(x / y);
Ouput: 1.8

• The result of integer division is just the

integer part of the quotient!

9
 Assignment Operator
• The basic assignment operator (=) assigns
the value of expr to var
var = expr ;

• Java allows you to combine arithmetic and

assignment operators into a single operator

• Examples:
x = x + 5; is equivalent to x += 5;
y = y * 7; is equivalent to y *= 7;

10
 Increment/Decrement Operators
• ++ is called the increment operator. It is used
to increase the value of a variable by 1.

For example:
i = i + 1; can be written as:
++i; or i++;

• -- is called the decrement operator. It is

used to decrease the value of a variable by 1.
i = i - 1; can be written as:
--i; or i--;

11
 Increment Operators (cont’d)
• The increment / decrement operator has
two forms :

- Prefix Form e.g ++i; --i;

- Postfix Form e.g i++; i--;

12
 Prefix increment /decrement

• The prefix form first adds/ subtracts1

from the variable and then continues to
any other operator in the expression

• Example:
int numOranges = 5;
int numApples =
10; int numFruit;
numFruit = +
+numOranges +
numApples;

numFruit has value 16

numOranges has value 6

13
 Postfix Increment/ Decrement
• The postfix form i++, i-- first evaluates the
entire expression and then adds 1 to the
variable

• Example:
int numOranges = 5;
int numApples =
10; int numFruit;
numFruit =
numOranges++ +
numApples;

numFruit has value 15

numOranges has value 6
14
Relational (Comparison) Operators
• Relational operators compare two values
• They Produce a boolean value (true or false)
depending on the relationship
Operation ….Is true when
a > b a is greater than b
a >= b a is greater than or equal to b
a == b a is equal to b
a != b a is not equal to b Note: ==
sign!
a <= b a is less than or equal to b
a < b a is less than b

15
Examples of Relational Operations
int x = 3;
int y = 5;
boolean
result;

1) result =
(x > y);
now result is assigned the value false because 3
is not greater than 5

2) result = (15 == x*y);

now result is assigned the value true because the product of 3 and
5 equals 15

3) result = (x != x*y);
now result is assigned the value true because the product of
x and y (15) is not equal to x (3)

16
 Conditional Operators
Symbol Name
&& AND
|| OR
! NOT

• Conditional operators can be referred to as

boolean operators, because they are
only used to combine expressions that
have a value of true or false.

17
Truth Table for Conditional Operators
x y x && y x || y !x

True True True True False

True False False True False

False True False True True

False False False False True

18
 Examples of Conditional Operators
boolean x = true;
boolean y = false;
boolean result;
1. Let result =
(x && y);

now result is
assigned the
value false
(x table!)
(see truth || y) evaluates to true
2. (true &&
Let result = x) evaluates to true
((x || y) &&
now result is assigned the value
x);
true

19
 Using && and ||
• Java performs short-circuit evaluation: By
this we mean that it evaluates && and ||
expressions from left to right and once it finds
the result, it stops.

• Examples:
(a && (b++ > 3))
(x || y)

• Java will evaluate these expressions from left

to right and so will evaluate
a before (b++ > 3)
x before y

20
 Short-Circuit Evaluation
(a && (b++ > 3));
What happens if a is false?
• Java will not evaluate the right-hand expression (b++
> 3) if the left-hand operator a is false, since the
result is already determined in this case to be false.
This means b will not be incremented!

(x || y);
What happens if x is true?
• Similarly, Java will not evaluate the right-hand
operator y if the left-hand operator x is true,
since the result is already determined in this case
to be true.

21
 POP QUIZ
1) What is the value of number?
int number = 5 * 3 – 3 / 6 – 9 * 3;
2)What is the value of result?
int x = 8;
int y = 2;
boolean result = (15 == x *
y);
3)What is the value of result?
boolean result
x = 7; = (x < 8) && (x > 4);
4) What is the value of numCars?
int numBlueCars = 5;
int numGreenCars = 10;
int numCars = numGreenCars++ +
numBlueCars + ++numGreeenCars;

22
 POP Quiz Solutions
1) What is the value of number? -12
int number = 5 * 3 – 3 / 6 – 9 * 3;
2)What is the value of result? false
int x = 8;
int y = 2;
boolean result = (15 == x * y);

3)What is the value of result? true

boolean x = 7;
boolean result = (x < 8) && (x
> 4);

4)What is the value of numCars?

27 int numBlueCars = 5;

int numGreenCars = 10;

int numCars = numGreenCars++ + numBlueCars +
++numGreeenCars;
23
 Reference
• Summary of Java operators
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/opsummary.
html

24
 This Lecture Covered….
• What Operators are
• The different types of operators
• The order of Operations for arithmetic
operators
• Prefix and Postfix operators
• Short Circuit Evaluation

25