JAVA - BASIC OPERATORS

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Java provides a rich set of operat ors t o manipulat e variables. We can divide all t he Java operat ors int o
t he following groups:
Arit hmet ic Operat ors
Relat ional Operat ors
Bit wise Operat ors
Logical Operat ors
Assignment Operat ors
Misc Operat ors

The Arit hmet ic Operat ors:

Arit hmet ic operat ors are used in mat hemat ical expressions in t he same way t hat t hey are used in
algebra. The following t able list s t he arit hmet ic operat ors:
Assume int eger variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, t hen:
Show Examples
Operato r

Descriptio n

Example

Addit ion - Adds values on eit her side of t he operat or

A + B will give 30

Subt ract ion - Subt ract s right hand operand from left hand
operand

A - B will give -10

Mult iplicat ion - Mult iplies values on eit her side of t he operat or

A * B will give 200

Division - Divides left hand operand by right hand operand

B / A will give 2

Modulus - Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and

ret urns remainder

B % A will give 0

++

Increment - Increases t he value of operand by 1

B++ gives 21

--

Decrement - Decreases t he value of operand by 1

B-- gives 19

The Relat ional Operat ors:

There are following relat ional operat ors support ed by Java language
Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, t hen:
Show Examples
Operato r

Descriptio n

Example

==

Checks if t he values of t wo operands are equal or not , if yes

t hen condit ion becomes t rue.

(A == B) is not
t rue.

!=

Checks if t he values of t wo operands are equal or not , if values

are not equal t hen condit ion becomes t rue.

(A != B) is t rue.

>

Checks if t he value of left operand is great er t han t he value of

right operand, if yes t hen condit ion becomes t rue.

(A > B) is not
t rue.

<

Checks if t he value of left operand is less t han t he value of right

operand, if yes t hen condit ion becomes t rue.

(A < B) is t rue.

>=

Checks if t he value of left operand is great er t han or equal t o

t he value of right operand, if yes t hen condit ion becomes t rue.

(A >= B) is not
t rue.

<=

Checks if t he value of left operand is less t han or equal t o t he

value of right operand, if yes t hen condit ion becomes t rue.

(A <= B) is t rue.

The Bit wise Operat ors:

Java defines several bit wise operat ors, which can be applied t o t he int eger t ypes, long, int , short ,
char, and byt e.
Bit wise operat or works on bit s and performs bit -by-bit operat ion. Assume if a = 60; and b = 13; now
in binary format t hey will be as follows:
a = 0011 1100
b = 0000 1101
----------------a&b = 0000 1100
a|b = 0011 1101
a^b = 0011 0001
~a = 1100 0011
The following t able list s t he bit wise operat ors:
Assume int eger variable A holds 60 and variable B holds 13 t hen:
Show Examples
Operato r

Descriptio n

Example

&

Binary AND Operat or copies a bit t o t he result if it exist s in bot h

operands.

(A & B) will give

12 which is 0000
1100

Binary OR Operat or copies a bit if it exist s in eit her operand.

(A | B) will give 61
which is 0011
1101

Binary XOR Operat or copies t he bit if it is set in one operand but

not bot h.

(A ^ B) will give
49 which is 0011
0001

Binary Ones Complement Operat or is unary and has t he effect of

'flipping' bit s.

(~A ) will give -61

which is 1100
0011 in 2's
complement
form due t o a
signed binary
number.

<<

Binary Left Shift Operat or. The left operands value is moved left
by t he number of bit s specified by t he right operan

A << 2 will give

240 which is 1111
0000

>>

Binary Right Shift Operat or. The left operands value is moved
right by t he number of bit s specified by t he right operand.

A >> 2 will give

15 which is 1111

>>>

Shift right zero fill operat or. The left operands value is moved
right by t he number of bit s specified by t he right operand and
shift ed values are filled up wit h zeros.

A >>>2 will give

15 which is 0000
1111

The Logical Operat ors:

The following t able list s t he logical operat ors:
Assume Boolean variables A holds t rue and variable B holds false, t hen:
Show Examples
Operato r

Descriptio n

Example

&&

Called Logical AND operat or. If bot h t he operands are non-zero,

t hen t he condit ion becomes t rue.

(A && B) is false.

||

Called Logical OR Operat or. If any of t he t wo operands are nonzero, t hen t he condit ion becomes t rue.

(A || B) is t rue.

Called Logical NOT Operat or. Use t o reverses t he logical st at e of

it s operand. If a condit ion is t rue t hen Logical NOT operat or will
make false.

!(A && B) is t rue.

The Assignment Operat ors:

There are following assignment operat ors support ed by Java language:
Show Examples
Operato r

Descriptio n

Example

Simple assignment operat or, Assigns values from right side

operands t o left side operand

C = A + B will
assign value of A
+ B int o C

+=

Add AND assignment operat or, It adds right operand t o t he left

operand and assign t he result t o left operand

C += A is
equivalent t o C =
C+A

-=

Subt ract AND assignment operat or, It subt ract s right operand
from t he left operand and assign t he result t o left operand

C -= A is
equivalent t o C =
C-A

*=

Mult iply AND assignment operat or, It mult iplies right operand
wit h t he left operand and assign t he result t o left operand

C *= A is
equivalent t o C =
C*A

/=

Divide AND assignment operat or, It divides left operand wit h t he

right operand and assign t he result t o left operand

C /= A is
equivalent t o C =
C/A

%=

Modulus AND assignment operat or, It t akes modulus using t wo

operands and assign t he result t o left operand

C %= A is
equivalent t o C =
C%A

<<=

Left shift AND assignment operat or

C <<= 2 is same
as C = C << 2

>>=

Right shift AND assignment operat or

C >>= 2 is same
as C = C >> 2

&=

Bit wise AND assignment operat or

C &= 2 is same
as C = C & 2

^=

bit wise exclusive OR and assignment operat or

C ^= 2 is same
as C = C ^ 2

|=

bit wise inclusive OR and assignment operat or

C |= 2 is same as
C=C|2

Misc Operat ors

There are few ot her operat ors support ed by Java Language.

Condit ional Operat or ( ? : ):

Condit ional operat or is also known as t he t ernary operat or. This operat or consist s of t hree operands
and is used t o evaluat e Boolean expressions. The goal of t he operat or is t o decide which value
should be assigned t o t he variable. The operat or is writ t en as:
variable x = (expression) ? value if true : value if false

Following is t he example:
public class Test {
public static void main(String args[]){
int a , b;
a = 10;
b = (a == 1) ? 20: 30;
System.out.println( "Value of b is : " +

b );

b = (a == 10) ? 20: 30;

System.out.println( "Value of b is : " + b );
}
}

This would produce t he following result :

Value of b is : 30
Value of b is : 20

inst anceof Operat or:

This operat or is used only for object reference variables. The operat or checks whet her t he object is
of a part icular t ype(class t ype or int erface t ype). inst anceof operat or is wriit en as:
( Object reference variable ) instanceof

(class/interface type)

If t he object referred by t he variable on t he left side of t he operat or passes t he IS-A check for t he
class/int erface t ype on t he right side, t hen t he result will be t rue. Following is t he example:
public class Test {
public static void main(String args[]){
String name = "James";
// following will return true since name is type of String
boolean result = name instanceof String;
System.out.println( result );
}
}

This would produce t he following result :

true

This operat or will st ill ret urn t rue if t he object being compared is t he assignment compat ible wit h t he
t ype on t he right . Following is one more example:
class Vehicle {}
public class Car extends Vehicle {
public static void main(String args[]){
Vehicle a = new Car();
boolean result = a instanceof Car;
System.out.println( result );
}
}

This would produce t he following result :

true

Precedence of Java Operat ors:

Operat or precedence det ermines t he grouping of t erms in an expression. This affect s how an
expression is evaluat ed. Cert ain operat ors have higher precedence t han ot hers; for example, t he
mult iplicat ion operat or has higher precedence t han t he addit ion operat or:
For example, x = 7 + 3 * 2; here x is assigned 13, not 20 because operat or * has higher precedence
t han +, so it first get s mult iplied wit h 3*2 and t hen adds int o 7.
Here, operat ors wit h t he highest precedence appear at t he t op of t he t able, t hose wit h t he lowest
appear at t he bot t om. Wit hin an expression, higher precedence operat ors will be evaluat ed first .
Catego ry

Operato r

Asso ciativity

Post fix

() [] . (dot operat or)

Left t oright

Unary

++ - - ! ~

Right t o left

Mult iplicat ive

*/%

Left t o right

Addit ive

+-

Left t o right

Shift

>> >>> <<

Left t o right

Relat ional

> >= < <=

Left t o right

Equalit y

== !=

Left t o right

Bit wise AND

&

Left t o right

Bit wise XOR

Left t o right

Bit wise OR

Left t o right

Logical AND

&&

Left t o right

Logical OR

||

Left t o right

Condit ional

?:

Right t o left

Assignment

= += -= *= /= %= >>= <<= &= ^= |=

Right t o left

Comma

Left t o right

What is Next ?
Next chapt er would explain about loop cont rol in Java programming. The chapt er will describe various
t ypes of loops and how t hese loops can be used in Java program development and for what
purposes t hey are being used.