Unary operators in java language is used to increment / decrement the value of a variable or to negate the value of a Boolean variable / Expression etc. Unary operator is performed on only one operand / variable.
Sounds difficult, in fact it’s very easy…Keep reading!!!
We are going to learn about below unary operators in simple way with examples.
++, — and ! (negate) unary operators.
Unary Operators in java and their operations
++ Increment operator that increment the value by 1
— Decrement operator that decrement the value by 1
! Negate the Boolean value
Note that ! – negation operator also comes under logical operators in java programming.
Unary operators require only one operand, meaning, unary operators are performed on only one variable.
For example,
If statement is as, int n = 10;
Then, ++ unary operator can be applied on variable n to increment its value by 1 from 10 to 11 as below
n++;
Similarly, — can be applied on variable n to decrement its value by 1 from 10 to 9 as below
n–;
++ Unary operator in Java with Code
++ operator increment the value of variable by 1. For example, in below program, value on n is initialized to 5.
We have applied ++ unary operator on variable n in next statement, that increment the value of n by 1 resulting 6.
On printing the value of variable n, output will be 6.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
n++; //++ increment value of variable n by 1
System.out.println(n);
}
}
Output:
6
Pre Increment & Post increment Unary operators in Java
There are two ways, we can apply ++ operator on variable n,
1)Pre-increment e.g. ++n; //apply ++ before variable n.
2)Post increment e.g. n++ // Apply ++ after the variable n.
PRE-INCREMENT
Pre-increment, first increment the value of a variable, then perform operation.
What does it mean?
Let’s consider the statement b = ++n; in below program.
First increment will be performed. Meaning, first value of n will be incremented then assign the incremented value to variable b.
Hence, if value of n is initially 5, then first it will be incremented to 6 then it will be assigning to b.
So, value of b will be 6.
Note that value of n will also be 6 as it has already been incremented. So, if you print the value on n, it will print 6.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//Increment operator that increment the value by 1
int n = 5;
int b;
b = ++n;
System.out.println(b);
}
}
Output:
6
POST-INCREMENT
post increment is just opposite to pre-increment, first value of n will be assigned to variable b, then n will be incremented.
So, value of variable b will be 5.
Then increment happens on n, so if you print the value on n, it’s value will be 6.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
int b;
b = n++;
System.out.println(b);
System.out.println(n);
}
}
Output:
5
6
CONFUSION:
In below program, why the value of n is same i.e.6 when, whatever we write ++n or n++?
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
++n; // or n++
//why value prints 6 in case of both
// ++n or n++?
System.out.println(n);
}
}
Output:
6
Answer: Because, on statement ++n or n++, we are not performing any operation, for example, in previous example we did “b = ++n,” or “b =n++;”
We are just incrementing the value by applying any pre-increment [++n] or post increment[n++].
Hence, in next statement, during printing, we are getting incremented value of variable n.
NOTE:
++n or n++ can also be written as n += 1; Notice first +, then = symbol together.
n +=1; is same as n = n+1;
Example:
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
n += 1; // same as ++n or n = n +1
System.out.println(n);
}
}
Output:
6
— Unary Operator in java with Code
— Unary operator decrements the value of a variable by 1.
NOTE: All the rules we studied for ++ unary operator will be applied to – unary operator too. So, just using – instead of ++ in all above examples, you can practice and see the result.
Just an example here.
For example, in below program, value on n is initialized to 5.
We have applied — unary operator on variable n in next statement, that decrement the value of n by 1 resulting 4.
On printing the value of variable n, output will be 4.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
n--; //-- decrement value of variable n by 1
System.out.println(n);
}
}
Output:
4
In brief,
PRE-DECREMENT
–n,
POST-DECREMENT
n–;
n– or –n can be written as n -= 1. It is same as n = n -1.
! (Negate) Unary operator
! negate unary operator just used to reverse/ invert a Boolean value.
It is applied on Boolean variable or Boolean expression.
! Example on Boolean variable.
In the code example, a Boolean variable isDiscount has been created and initialized to false.
In system.out.println isDiscount has been inverted using ! i.e. !isDiscount resulting output as true.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
boolean isDiscount = false;
//negate the value using ! unary operator
//it will output true
System.out.println(!isDiscount);
}
}
Output:
true
! Example on Boolean Expression.
In this code example, result is of Boolean type and initialized with value false.
C > b; is a Boolean expression, as it compares if c is greater that b resulting true or false.
In this example, value of b is 10 and value of c is 20. So, the expression c > b will result true and true will be assign to variable result.
On negating the variable “result” in system.out.println method as !result, the output will be false.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
boolean result = false;
int b =10;
int c =20;
result = c > b;// assign true
//negate the value using ! unary operator
//it will output false
System.out.println(!result);
}
}
Output:
False
SPECIAL NOTE:
– is also treaded as Unary operator in some case besides arithmetic operator in java language.
– unary operator is used to negate the value of a variable.
For example, if variable n has value 10 and you want to assign 10 in another variable b;
Then you can write the statement as b = -n;, Now, b will have value -10.
Note that the value of n will not be changed and it will be 10 only.
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n =10;
int b ;
b = -n;
System.out.println(b);
System.out.println(n);
}
}
Unary operators in java : RECAP
- ++ , — and ! are unary operators in java programming
- ++ unary operator increments the value of a variable by 1, it has two form Pre-increment(++n) and post increment (e.g. n++) form
- n++ or ++n can be written as n += 1. It is same as n = n +1.
- Pre- increment will increment the value of a variable first, then operate it.
- In post increment the operation will happen first, then value will be increment.
- — decrement the value of a variable by 1.
- — unary operator also has two form PRE-DECREMENT i.e.–n, and POST-DECREMENT i.e. n–;
- n– or –n can be written as n -= 1. It is same as n = n -1.
- ! negate unary operator just used to reverse/ invert a Boolean value.