Operators

The Java operators are based on those of C/C++, with some additions and modifications.

The Java Operators

Here are the operators in Java.

The precedence and associativity are essentially the same as in C/C++.

Precedence	Operator	Operand Types	Associativity	Operation
1 (Highest)	++ — + – ~ ! (type)	arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic integral boolean any	Right-to-Left	pre- or post- increment pre- or post- decrement unary plus unary minus bitwise complement (unary) logical complement (unary) cast
2	* / %	arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic	Left-to-Right	multiplication division remainder (modulus)
3	+ – +	arithmetic arithmetic string	Left-to-Right	addition subtraction string concatenation
4	<< >> >>>	integral integral integral	Left-to-Right	left shift right shift with sign extension right shift with zero extension
5	< <= > >= instanceof	arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic object, type	Left-to-Right	less than less then or equal greater than greater than or equal type comparison
6	== != == !=	primitive primitive object object	Left-to-Right	equal (have identical values) not equal (have different values) equal (refer to same obect) not equal (refer to different objects)
7	& &	integral boolean	Left-to-Right	bitwise AND boolean AND
8	^ ^	integral boolean	Left-to-Right	bitwise XOR boolean XOR
9	| |	integral boolean	Left-to-Right	bitwise OR boolean OR
10	&&	boolean	Left-to-Right	conditional AND
11	||	boolean	Left-to-Right	conditional OR
12	?:	boolean, any, any	Right-to-Left	conditional (ternary) operator
13 (Lowest)	= *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= >>>= &= ^= |=	variable, any	Right-to-Left	assignment assignment with operation

Differences from C/C++

Here are some ways in which Java operators differ from those of C and C++:

Java	C & C++	Comments
No comma operator	Support comma operator	Java’s for statement supports a useful syntax, as in C/C++
No reference or dereference operators (*, -> and &)	Support reference and dereference operators.	Java has no pointers.
No sizeof operator	Support sizeof operator	Java doesn’t need it for portability
Doesn’t consider [] and . to be operators	Consider [] and . to be operators
The + operator applied to Strings concatenates them.		In Java, conversion is performed automatically for primitive types, and by calling the toString() method for non-primitive types.
Supports instanceof operator	C++ has typeid operator	Tests whether an object is an instance of a class or whether it implements an interface.
Supports >>> operator		Right-shifts with zero extension.
Supports variety of &, | and ^ operators, depending on operand type.		Operators perform bitwise operations on integral values, but boolean operations on boolean values.