6 assignment operators in java

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Operators are used to perform operations on variables and values.

In the example below, we use the + operator to add together two values:

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Although the + operator is often used to add together two values, like in the example above, it can also be used to add together a variable and a value, or a variable and another variable:

Java divides the operators into the following groups:

• Arithmetic operators
• Assignment operators
• Comparison operators
• Logical operators
• Bitwise operators

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to perform common mathematical operations.

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Java Assignment Operators

Assignment operators are used to assign values to variables.

In the example below, we use the assignment operator ( = ) to assign the value 10 to a variable called x :

The addition assignment operator ( += ) adds a value to a variable:

A list of all assignment operators:

Java Comparison Operators

Comparison operators are used to compare two values (or variables). This is important in programming, because it helps us to find answers and make decisions.

The return value of a comparison is either true or false . These values are known as Boolean values , and you will learn more about them in the Booleans and If..Else chapter.

In the following example, we use the greater than operator ( > ) to find out if 5 is greater than 3:

Java Logical Operators

You can also test for true or false values with logical operators.

Logical operators are used to determine the logic between variables or values:

Java Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators are used to perform binary logic with the bits of an integer or long integer.

Note: The Bitwise examples above use 4-bit unsigned examples, but Java uses 32-bit signed integers and 64-bit signed long integers. Because of this, in Java, ~5 will not return 10. It will return -6. ~00000000000000000000000000000101 will return 11111111111111111111111111111010

In Java, 9 >> 1 will not return 12. It will return 4. 00000000000000000000000000001001 >> 1 will return 00000000000000000000000000000100

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Multiply 10 with 5 , and print the result.

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Java Assignment Operators

Java programming tutorial index.

The Java Assignment Operators are used when you want to assign a value to the expression. The assignment operator denoted by the single equal sign = .

In a Java assignment statement, any expression can be on the right side and the left side must be a variable name. For example, this does not mean that "a" is equal to "b", instead, it means assigning the value of 'b' to 'a'. It is as follows:

Java also has the facility of chain assignment operators, where we can specify a single value for multiple variables.

• Java Operators

Last updated: January 8, 2024

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1. Overview

Operators are a fundamental building block of any programming language. We use operators to perform operations on values and variables.

Java provides many groups of operators. They are categorized by their functionalities.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through all Java operators to understand their functionalities and how to use them.

2. Arithmetic Operators

We use arithmetic operators to perform simple mathematical operations. We should note that arithmetic operators only work with primitive number types and their boxed types , such as int and  Integer .

Next, let’s see what operators we have in the arithmetic operator group.

2.1. The Addition Operator

The addition operator (+) allows us to add two values or concatenate two strings:

2.2. The Subtraction Operator

Usually, we use the subtraction operator (-) to subtract one value from another:

2.3. The Multiplication Operator

The multiplication operator (*) is used to multiply two values or variables:

2.4. The Division Operator

The division operator (/) allows us to divide the left-hand value by the right-hand one:

When we use the division operator on two integer values ( byte , short , int , and long ), we should note that the result is the quotient value. The remainder is not included .

As the example above shows, if we calculate 15 / 2 , the quotient is 7, and the remainder is 1 . Therefore, we have 15 / 2 = 7 .

2.5. The Modulo Operator

We can get the quotient using the division operator. However, if we just want to get the remainder of a division calculation, we can use the modulo operator (%):

3. Unary Operators

As the name implies, unary operators only require one single operand . For example, we usually use unary operators to increment, decrement, or negate a variable or value.

Now, let’s see the details of unary operators in Java.

3.1. The Unary Plus Operator

The unary plus operator (+) indicates a positive value. If the number is positive, we can omit the ‘+’ operator:

3.2. The Unary Minus Operator

Opposite to the unary plus operator, the unary minus operator (-) negates a value or an expression:

3.3. The Logical Complement Operator

The logical complement operator (!) is also known as the “NOT” operator . We can use it to invert the value of a boolean variable or value:

3.4. The Increment Operator

The increment operator (++) allows us to increase the value of a variable by 1:

3.5. The Decrement Opeartor

The decrement operator (–) does the opposite of the increment operator. It decreases the value of a variable by 1:

We should keep in mind that the increment and decrement operators can only be used on a variable . For example, “ int a = 5; a++; ” is fine. However, the expression “ 5++ ” won’t be compiled.

4. Relational Operators

Relational operators can be called “comparison operators” as well. Basically, we use these operators to compare two values or variables.

4.1. The “Equal To” Operator

We use the “equal to” operator (==) to compare the values on both sides. If they’re equal, the operation returns true :

The “equal to” operator is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, the Object class has provided the equals() method. As the Object class is the superclass of all Java classes, all Java objects can use the equals() method to compare each other.

When we want to compare two objects – for instance, when we compare Long objects or compare String s –  we should choose between the comparison method from the equals() method and that of the “equal to” operator wisely .

4.2. The “Not Equal To” Operator

The “not equal to” operator (!=) does the opposite of the ‘==’ operator. If the values on both sides are not equal, the operation returns true :

4.3. The “Greater Than” Operator

When we compare two values with the “greater than” operator (>), it returns true if the value on the left-hand side is greater than the value on the right-hand side:

4.4. The “Greater Than or Equal To” Operator

The “greater than or equal to” operator (>=) compares the values on both sides and returns true if the left-hand side operand is greater than or equal to the right-hand side operand:

4.5. The “Less Than” Operator

The “less than” operator (<) compares two values on both sides and returns true if the value on the left-hand side is less than the value on the right-hand side:

4.6. The “Less Than or Equal To” Operator

Similarly, the “less than or equal to” operator (<=) compares the values on both sides and returns true if the left-hand side operand is less than or equal to the right-hand side:

5. Logical Operators

We have two logical operators in Java: the logical AND and OR operators. Basically, their function is pretty similar to the AND gate and the OR gate in digital electronics.

Usually, we use a logical operator with two operands, which are variables or expressions that can be evaluated as boolean .

Next, let’s take a closer look at them.

5.1. The Logical AND Operator

The logical AND operator ( && ) returns true only if both operands are true :

5.2. The Logical OR Operator

Unlike the ‘ && ‘ operator, the logical OR operator ( || ) returns true if at least one operand is  true :

We should note that the logical OR operator has the short-circuiting effect : It returns true as soon as one of the operands is evaluated as true, without evaluating the remaining operands.

6. Ternary Operator

A ternary operator is a short form of the if-then-else statement. It has the name ternary as it has three operands. First, let’s have a look at the standard if-then-else statement syntax:

We can convert the above if-then-else statement into a compact version using the ternary operator:

Let’s look at its syntax:

Next, let’s understand how the ternary operator works through a simple example:

7. Bitwise and Bit Shift Operators

As the article “ Java bitwise operators ” covers the details of bitwise and bit shift operators, we’ll briefly summarize these operators in this tutorial.

7.1. The Bitwise AND Operator

The bitwise AND operator (&) returns the bit-by-bit AND of input values:

7.2. The Bitwise OR Operator

The bitwise OR operator (|) returns the bit-by-bit OR of input values:

7.3. The Bitwise XOR Operator

The bitwise XOR (exclusive OR) operator (^) returns the bit-by-bit XOR of input values:

7.4. The Bitwise Complement Operator

The bitwise complement operator (~) is a unary operator. It returns the value’s complement representation, which inverts all bits from the input value:

7.5. The Left Shift Operator

Shift operators shift the bits to the left or right by the given number of times.

The left shift operator (<<) shifts the bits to the left by the number of times defined by the right-hand side operand. After the left shift, the empty space in the right is filled with 0.

Next, let’s left shift the number 12 twice:

n << x has the same effect of multiplying the number  n  with x power of two.

7.6. The Signed Right Shift Operator

The signed right shift operator (>>) shifts the bits to the right by the number of times defined by the right-hand side operand and fills 0 on voids left as a result.

We should note that the leftmost position after the shifting depends on the sign extension .

Next, let’s do “signed right shift” twice on the numbers 12 and -12 to see the difference:

As the second example above shows, if the number is negative, the leftmost position after each shift will be set by the sign extension.

n >> x has the same effect of dividing the number n by x power of two.

7.7. The Unsigned Right Shift Operator

The unsigned right shift operator (>>>) works in a similar way as the ‘>>’ operator. The only difference is that after a shift, the leftmost bit is set to 0 .

Next, let’s unsigned right shift twice on the numbers 12 and -12 to see the difference:

As we can see in the second example above, the >>> operator fills voids on the left with 0 irrespective of whether the number is positive or negative .

8. The “ instanceof ” Operator

Sometimes, when we have an object, we would like to test if it’s an instance of a given type . The “ instanceof ” operator can help us to do it:

9. Assignment Operators

We use assignment operators to assign values to variables. Next, let’s see which assignment operators we can use in Java.

9.1. The Simple Assignment Operator

The simple assignment operator (=) is a straightforward but important operator in Java. Actually, we’ve used it many times in previous examples. It assigns the value on its right to the operand on its left:

9.2. Compound Assignments

We’ve learned arithmetic operators. We can combine the arithmetic operators with the simple assignment operator to create compound assignments.

For example, we can write “ a = a + 5 ” in a compound way: “ a += 5 “.

Finally, let’s walk through all supported compound assignments in Java through examples:

10. Conclusion

Java provides many groups of operators for different functionalities. In this article, we’ve passed through the operators in Java.

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Java provides many types of operators to perform a variety of calculations and functions, such as logical , arithmetic , relational , and others. With so many operators to choose from, it helps to group them based on the type of functionality they provide. This programming tutorial will focus on Java’s numerous a ssignment operators.

Before we begin, however, you may want to bookmark our other tutorials on Java operators, which include:

• Arithmetic Operators
• Comparison Operators
• Conditional Operators
• Logical Operators
• Bitwise and Shift Operators

Assignment Operators in Java

As the name conveys, assignment operators are used to assign values to a variable using the following syntax:

The left side operand of the assignment operator must be a variable, whereas the right side operand of the assignment operator may be a literal value or another variable. Moreover, the value or variable on the right side must be of the same data type of the operand on the left side. Otherwise, the compiler will raise an error. Assignment operators have a right to left associativity in that the value given on the right-hand side of the operator is assigned to the variable on the left. Therefore, the right-hand side variable must be declared before assignment.

You can learn more about variables in our programming tutorial: Working with Java Variables .

Types of Assignment Operators in Java

Java assignment operators are classified into two types: simple and compound .

The Simple assignment operator is the equals ( = ) sign, which is the most straightforward of the bunch. It simply assigns the value or variable on the right to the variable on the left.

Compound operators are comprised of both an arithmetic, bitwise, or shift operator in addition to the equals ( = ) sign.

Equals Operator (=) Java Example

First, let’s learn to use the one-and-only simple assignment operator – the Equals ( = ) operator – with the help of a Java program. It includes two assignments: a literal value to num1 and the num1 variable to num2 , after which both are printed to the console to show that the values have been assigned to the numbers:

The += Operator Java Example

A compound of the + and = operators, the += adds the current value of the variable on the left to the value on the right before assigning the result to the operand on the left. Here is some sample code to demonstrate how to use the += operator in Java:

The -= Operator Java Example

Made up of the – and = operators, the -= first subtracts the variable’s value on the right from the current value of the variable on the left before assigning the result to the operand on the left. We can see it at work below in the following code example showing how to decrement in Java using the -= operator:

The *= Operator Java Example

This Java operator is comprised of the * and = operators. It operates by multiplying the current value of the variable on the left to the value on the right and then assigning the result to the operand on the left. Here’s a program that shows the *= operator in action:

The /= Operator Java Example

A combination of the / and = operators, the /= Operator divides the current value of the variable on the left by the value on the right and then assigns the quotient to the operand on the left. Here is some example code showing how to use the  /= operator in Java:

%= Operator Java Example

The %= operator includes both the % and = operators. As seen in the program below, it divides the current value of the variable on the left by the value on the right and then assigns the remainder to the operand on the left:

Compound Bitwise and Shift Operators in Java

The Bitwise and Shift Operators that we just recently covered can also be utilized in compound form as seen in the list below:

• &= – Compound bitwise Assignment operator.
• ^= – Compound bitwise ^ assignment operator.
• >>= – Compound right shift assignment operator.
• >>>= – Compound right shift filled 0 assignment operator.
• <<= – Compound left shift assignment operator.

The following program demonstrates the working of all the Compound Bitwise and Shift Operators :

Final Thoughts on Java Assignment Operators

This programming tutorial presented an overview of Java’s simple and compound assignment Operators. An essential building block to any programming language, developers would be unable to store any data in their programs without them. Though not quite as indispensable as the equals operator, compound operators are great time savers, allowing you to perform arithmetic and bitwise operations and assignment in a single line of code.

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Operators Precedence postfix ++ -- unary -- + - ~ ! multiplicative additive shift relational equality bitwise AND bitwise exclusive OR bitwise inclusive OR logical AND logical OR ternary assignment

In general-purpose programming, certain operators tend to appear more frequently than others; for example, the assignment operator " = " is far more common than the unsigned right shift operator " >>> ". With that in mind, the following discussion focuses first on the operators that you're most likely to use on a regular basis, and ends focusing on those that are less common. Each discussion is accompanied by sample code that you can compile and run. Studying its output will help reinforce what you've just learned.

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Java Assignment Operators

Description.

Assigning a value to a variable seems straightforward enough; you simply assign the stuff on the right side of the '= 'to the variable on the left. Below statement 1 assigning value 10 to variable x and statement 2 is creating String object called name and assigning value "Amit" to it.

Assignment can be of various types. Let’s discuss each in detail.

Primitive Assignment:

The equal (=) sign is used for assigning a value to a variable. We can assign a primitive variable using a literal or the result of an expression.

Primitive Casting

Casting lets you convert primitive values from one type to another. We need to provide casting when we are trying to assign higher precision primitive to lower precision primitive for example If we try to assign int variable (which is in the range of byte variable) to byte variable then the compiler will throw an exception called "possible loss of precision". Eclipse IDE will suggest the solution as well as shown below. To avoid such problem we should use type casting which will instruct compiler for type conversion.

For cases where we try to assign smaller container variable to larger container variables we do not need of explicit casting. The compiler will take care of those type conversions. For example, we can assign byte variable or short variable to an int without any explicit casting.

Assigning Literal that is too large for a variable

When we try to assign a variable value which is too large (or out of range ) for a primitive variable then the compiler will throw exception “possible loss of precision” if we try to provide explicit cast then the compiler will accept it but narrowed down the value using two’s complement method. Let’s take an example of the byte which has 8-bit storage space and range -128 to 127. In below program we are trying to assign 129 literal value to byte primitive type which is out of range for byte so compiler converted it to -127 using two’s complement method. Refer link for two’s complement calculation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two's_complement)

Java Code: Go to the editor

Reference variable assignment

We can assign newly created object to object reference variable as below

First line will do following things,

• Makes a reference variable named s of type String
• Creates a new String object on the heap memory
• Assigns the newly created String object to the reference variables

You can also assign null to an object reference variable, which simply means the variable is not referring to any object. The below statement creates space for the Employee reference variable (the bit holder for a reference value) but doesn't create an actual Employee object.

Compound Assignment Operators

Sometime we need to modify the same variable value and reassigned it to a same reference variable. Java allows you to combine assignment and addition operators using a shorthand operator. For example, the preceding statement can be written as:

The += is called the addition assignment operator. Other shorthand operators are shown below table

Operator	Name	Example	Equivalent
+=	Addition assignment	i+=5;	i=i+5
-=	Subtraction assignment	j-=10;	j=j-10;
*=	Multiplication assignment	k*=2;	k=k*2;
/=	Division assignment	x/=10;	x=x/10;
%=	Remainder assignment	a%=4;	a=a%4;

Below is the sample program explaining assignment operators:

• Assigning a value to can be straight forward or casting.
• If we assign the value which is out of range of variable type then 2’s complement is assigned.
• Java supports shortcut/compound assignment operator.

Java Code Editor:

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Assignment Operator in Java with Example

Assignment operator is one of the simplest and most used operator in java programming language. As the name itself suggests, the assignment operator is used to assign value inside a variable. In java we can divide assignment operator in two types :

• Assignment operator or simple assignment operator
• Compound assignment operators

What is assignment operator in java

The = operator in java is known as assignment or simple assignment operator. It assigns the value on its right side to the operand(variable) on its left side. For example :

The left-hand side of an assignment operator must be a variable while the right side of it should be a value which can be in the form of a constant value, a variable name, an expression, a method call returning a compatible value or a combination of these.

The value at right side of assignment operator must be compatible with the data type of left side variable, otherwise compiler will throw compilation error. Following are incorrect assignment :

Another important thing about assignment operator is that, it is evaluated from right to left . If there is an expression at right side of assignment operator, it is evaluated first then the resulted value is assigned in left side variable.

Here in statement int x = a + b + c; the expression a + b + c is evaluated first, then the resulted value( 60 ) is assigned into x . Similarly in statement a = b = c , first the value of c which is 30 is assigned into b and then the value of b which is now 30 is assigned into a .

The variable at left side of an assignment operator can also be a non-primitive variable. For example if we have a class MyFirstProgram , we can assign object of MyFirstProgram class using = operator in MyFirstProgram type variable.

Is == an assignment operator ?

No , it's not an assignment operator, it's a relational operator used to compare two values.

Is assignment operator a binary operator

Yes , as it requires two operands.

Assignment operator program in Java

a = 2 b = 2 c = 4 d = 4 e = false

Java compound assignment operators

The assignment operator can be mixed or compound with other operators like addition, subtraction, multiplication etc. We call such assignment operators as compound assignment operator. For example :

Here the statement a += 10; is the short version of a = a + 10; the operator += is basically addition compound assignment operator. Similarly b *= 5; is short version of b = b * 5; the operator *= is multiplication compound assignment operator. The compound assignment can be in more complex form as well, like below :

List of all assignment operators in Java

The table below shows the list of all possible assignment(simple and compound) operators in java. Consider a is an integer variable for this table.

Operator	Example	Same As
=	a = 10	a = 10
+=	a += 5	a = a + 5
-=	a -= 3	a = a - 3
*=	a *= 6	a = a * 6
/=	a /= 5	a = a / 5
%=	a %= 7	a = a % 7
&=	a &= 3	a = a & 3
|=	a |= 3	a = a | 3
^=	a ^= 2	a = a ^ 2
>>=	a >>= 3	a = a >> 3
>>>=	a >>>= 3	a = a >>> 3
<<=	a <<= 2	a = a << 2

How many assignment operators are there in Java ?

Including simple and compound assignment we have total 12 assignment operators in java as given in above table.

What is shorthand operator in Java ?

Shorthand operators are nothing new they are just a shorter way to write something that is already available in java language. For example the code a += 5 is shorter way to write a = a + 5 , so += is a shorthand operator. In java all the compound assignment operator(given above) and the increment/decrement operators are basically shorthand operators.

Compound assignment operator program in Java

a = 20 b = 80 c = 30 s = 64 s2 = 110 b2 = 15

What is the difference between += and =+ in Java?

An expression a += 1 will result as a = a + 1 while the expression a =+ 1 will result as a = +1 . The correct compound statement is += , not =+ , so do not use the later one.

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Compound assignment operators in Java

Compound-assignment operators provide a shorter syntax for assigning the result of an arithmetic or bitwise operator. They perform the operation on the two operands before assigning the result to the first operand. The following are all possible assignment operator in java:

Implementation of all compound assignment operator

Rules for resolving the Compound assignment operators

At run time, the expression is evaluated in one of two ways.Depending upon the programming conditions:

• First, the left-hand operand is evaluated to produce a variable. If this evaluation completes abruptly, then the assignment expression completes abruptly for the same reason; the right-hand operand is not evaluated and no assignment occurs.
• Otherwise, the value of the left-hand operand is saved and then the right-hand operand is evaluated. If this evaluation completes abruptly, then the assignment expression completes abruptly for the same reason and no assignment occurs.
• Otherwise, the saved value of the left-hand variable and the value of the right-hand operand are used to perform the binary operation indicated by the compound assignment operator. If this operation completes abruptly, then the assignment expression completes abruptly for the same reason and no assignment occurs.
• Otherwise, the result of the binary operation is converted to the type of the left-hand variable, subjected to value set conversion to the appropriate standard value set, and the result of the conversion is stored into the variable.
• First, the array reference sub-expression of the left-hand operand array access expression is evaluated. If this evaluation completes abruptly, then the assignment expression completes abruptly for the same reason; the index sub-expression (of the left-hand operand array access expression) and the right-hand operand are not evaluated and no assignment occurs.
• Otherwise, the index sub-expression of the left-hand operand array access expression is evaluated. If this evaluation completes abruptly, then the assignment expression completes abruptly for the same reason and the right-hand operand is not evaluated and no assignment occurs.
• Otherwise, if the value of the array reference sub-expression is null, then no assignment occurs and a NullPointerException is thrown.
• Otherwise, the value of the array reference sub-expression indeed refers to an array. If the value of the index sub-expression is less than zero, or greater than or equal to the length of the array, then no assignment occurs and an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException is thrown.
• Otherwise, the value of the index sub-expression is used to select a component of the array referred to by the value of the array reference sub-expression. The value of this component is saved and then the right-hand operand is evaluated. If this evaluation completes abruptly, then the assignment expression completes abruptly for the same reason and no assignment occurs.

Examples : Resolving the statements with Compound assignment operators

We all know that whenever we are assigning a bigger value to a smaller data type variable then we have to perform explicit type casting to get the result without any compile-time error. If we did not perform explicit type-casting then we will get compile time error. But in the case of compound assignment operators internally type-casting will be performed automatically, even we are assigning a bigger value to a smaller data-type variable but there may be a chance of loss of data information. The programmer will not responsible to perform explicit type-casting. Let’s see the below example to find the difference between normal assignment operator and compound assignment operator. A compound assignment expression of the form E1 op= E2 is equivalent to E1 = (T) ((E1) op (E2)), where T is the type of E1, except that E1 is evaluated only once.

For example, the following code is correct:

and results in x having the value 7 because it is equivalent to:

Because here 6.6 which is double is automatically converted to short type without explicit type-casting.

Refer: When is the Type-conversion required?

Explanation: In the above example, we are using normal assignment operator. Here we are assigning an int (b+1=20) value to byte variable (i.e. b) that’s results in compile time error. Here we have to do type-casting to get the result.

Explanation: In the above example, we are using compound assignment operator. Here we are assigning an int (b+1=20) value to byte variable (i.e. b) apart from that we get the result as 20 because In compound assignment operator type-casting is automatically done by compile. Here we don’t have to do type-casting to get the result.

Reference: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-15.html#jls-15.26.2

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