Core Java

Basic Java Operators

In this post, we feature a comprehensive article about the basic Java Operators. Basic Java operators are Arithmetic, Bitwise, Assignment, Relational, Logical, Ternary, Unary, Shift, and Equality Operators.

 

1. Overview

If you want to learn java, java operators are a great starting point. Java Operators are symbols that operate on one or more than one operand to give an output. Operators specify to the java interpreter to perform an operation.

2. Java Operators

Java Operators are the symbols to perform an operation. They help the interpreter to execute the operation. There are multiple type of operations in java.

Java Operators
Java Operators

2.1 Prerequisites

Java 8 is required on the Linux, Windows or Mac operating system. Eclipse Oxygen can be used for this example.

2.2 Download

You can download Java 8 from the Oracle web site . Eclipse Oxygen can be downloaded from the eclipse web site.

2.3 Setup

2.3.1 Java Setup

Below is the setup commands required for the Java Environment.

Setup

JAVA_HOME="/desktop/jdk1.8.0_73"
export JAVA_HOME
PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH

2.4 IDE

2.4.1 Eclipse Oxygen Setup

The ‘eclipse-java-oxygen-2-macosx-cocoa-x86_64.tar’ can be downloaded from the eclipse website. The tar file is opened by double click. The tar file is unzipped by using the archive utility. After unzipping, you will find the eclipse icon in the folder. You can move the eclipse icon from the folder to applications by dragging the icon.

2.4.2 Launching IDE

Eclipse has features related to language support, customization, and extension. You can click on the eclipse icon to launch eclipse. The eclipse screen pops up as shown in the screenshot below:

Java Operators - Launching IDE
Launching IDE

You can select the workspace from the screen which pops up. The attached image shows how it can be selected.

Java Operators - IntelliJ vs Eclipse
Eclipse Workspace

You can see the eclipse workbench on the screen. The attached screenshot shows the Eclipse project screen.

Java Operators - Eclipse Workbench
Eclipse Workbench

Java Hello World class prints the greetings. The screenshot below is added to show the class and execution on the eclipse.

Java Operators - Java Hello
Java Hello

2.5 Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to execute arithmetic operations on java primitive data types. The operators are listed below:

  • * (Multiplication)
  • / (Division)
  • %  (Modulus)
  • +  (Addition)
  • –  (Subtraction)

The code below shows the arithmetic operators specified above with examples.

Arithmetic Operators

public class ArithmeticOperators {

	public ArithmeticOperators() {
		
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		int g = 50, h = 70, i = 10, j = 90, k = 80, l = 60; 
        String u = "You are", v = "Welcome"; 
  
         
        System.out.println("g + h = " + (g + h)); 
        System.out.println("g - h = " + (g - h)); 
  
         
        System.out.println("u + v = " + u + v); 
  
        
        System.out.println("g * h = " + (g * h)); 
        System.out.println("g / h = " + (g / h)); 
  
        
        System.out.println("g % h = " + (g % h)); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac ArithmeticOperations.java
java ArithmeticOperations

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Java Operators - Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic Operators

2.6 Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators are used to execute operations on single bits. They can also be used with numbers of integer type. Tree operations such as update and query use bitwise operators in a binary tree. The bitwise operators are listed below:

  • & (AND operator) gives the result AND of input bit values.
  • | ( OR operator) gives the result OR of input bit values.
  • ^ ( XOR operator) gives the result XOR of input bit values.
  • ~ ( Complement Operator) gives the result of input bits reversed.

The code below shows the Bitwise operators specified above with examples.

Bitwise Operators

public class BitwiseOperators {

	public BitwiseOperators() {
		
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
        int cbit = 0x0004; 
        int dbit = 0x0003; 
  
 
        System.out.println("cbit&dbit = " + (cbit & dbit)); 
  
        System.out.println("cbit|dbit = " + (cbit | dbit)); 
  
        System.out.println("cbit^dbit = " + (cbit ^ dbit)); 
  
        System.out.println("~cbit = " + ~cbit); 
  
        cbit &= dbit; 
        System.out.println("cbit= " + cbit); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac BitwiseOperators.java
java BitwiseOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Bitwise Operations

2.7 Assignment Operators

The assignment operator is used to specify a value to the variable. The direction of the associativity is from right to left. The assignment operator is =.

The code below shows the assignment operator specified above with examples.

Assignment Operators

public class AssignmentOperators {

	public AssignmentOperators() {
		
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		int h = 20, i = 10, j, k, l = 10, m = 4, n = 9; 
		  
        
        j = i; 
        System.out.println("Value of j = " + j); 
  
        h = h + 1; 
        i = i - 1; 
        l = l * 2; 
        m = m / 2; 
        System.out.println("Sum of h,i,l,m = " + h + ", "
                           + i + ", " + l + ", " + m); 
        h = h - 1; 
        i = i + 1; 
        l = l / 2; 
        m = m * 2; 
  
        h += 1; 
        i -= 1; 
        l *= 2; 
        m /= 2; 
        System.out.println("h,i,l,m ("
                           + "applying shorthand operators)= "
                           + h + ", " + i + ", "
                           + l + ", " + m); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac AssignmentOperators.java
java AssignmentOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Assignment Operators

2.8 Relational Operators

Relational operators are used to perform relational operations. The relational operations are equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than, less than equal to, and greater than equal to. These operators give a boolean result. These operations are used in looping and conditional statements. The relational operators are listed below:

  • == (Equal to) gives a boolean result true if left-hand side value is equal to right-hand-side value.
  • != (Not Equal to) gives a boolean result true if left-hand side value is not equal to right-hand-side value.
  • < (less than)  gives a boolean result true if left-hand side value is less than the right-hand side value.
  • <= (less than or equal to ) gives a boolean result true if left-hand side value is less than or equal to the right-hand side value.
  • > (greater than ) gives a boolean result true if left-hand side value is greater than the right-hand-side value.
  • >= (greater than or equal to ) gives a boolean result true if left-hand side value is greater than or equal to the right-hand side value.

The code below shows the relational operators specified above with examples.

Relational Operators

public class RelationalOperators {

	public RelationalOperators() {

	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
        int c = 30, d = 20; 
        String u = "Welcome", v = "Welcome"; 
        int array1[] = { 1, 2, 3 }; 
        int array2[] = { 1, 2, 3 }; 
        boolean condvar = true; 
  
        
        System.out.println("c == d :" + (c == d)); 
        System.out.println("c < d :" + (c < d)); 
        System.out.println("c <= d :" + (c  d :" + (c > d)); 
        System.out.println("c >= d :" + (c >= d)); 
        System.out.println("c != d :" + (c != d)); 
  
        System.out.println("u == v : " + (u == v)); 
        System.out.println("array1 == array2 : " + (array1 == array2)); 
  
        System.out.println("condvar==true :"
                           + (condvar == true)); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac RelationalOperators.java
java RelationalOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Relational Operators

2.9 Logical Operators in Java

Logical operators are used to execute logical operations such as AND and OR operations. These operations are based on digital gate operations. Given two conditions, the second condition is not executed during the operation if the first condition is false in the case of AND operation. These operators are listed below:

  • && (AND) gives a boolean result true when both conditions are true.
  • || (OR) gives a boolean result true if at least one condition is true.

The code below shows the logical operator (&&) in a Java example.

Logical Operators

public class LogicalOperators {

	public LogicalOperators() {
		
	}
	
	
	public boolean login(String username, String password, String u, String v)
	{
        if ((username.equals(u) && password.equals(v)) 
                || (username.equals(v) && password.equals(u))) { 
                return true;
            } 
            else { 
                return false; 
            } 
   
	}
	
	public void printMessage(boolean check)
	{
		 if(check)
	        {
	          System.out.println("User is authenticated"); 
	        }
	        else
	        {
	        	  System.out.println("Wrong uid or password"); 
	        }
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String u = "thomas"; 
        String v = "password"; 
  
        LogicalOperators logic = new LogicalOperators();
        
         
        String username = "thomas"; 
 
        String password = "password"; 
   
        boolean check = logic.login(username, password, u, v);
        
        
        System.out.println("user"+username);
        
        logic.printMessage(check) ;
        
        username = "william";
        
        password = "passwo1d";
        
        check = logic.login(username, password, u, v);
         
        System.out.println("user"+username);
        
        logic.printMessage(check) ;

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet related to the logical operator in Java:

Run Command

javac  LogicalOperators.java
java  LogicalOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Logical Operators

2.10 Ternary Operators

Ternary operators are related to the if-else statement. It consists of three operands. Ternary refers to three operators. The operator format is typically like ‘condition ? if condition is true : if condition isfalse ‘

The code below shows the ternary operator example.

Ternary Operators

public class TernaryOperators {

	public TernaryOperators() {
		
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		int d = 40, e = 20, f = 50, output; 
		  

        output = ((d > e) 
                      ? (d > f) 
                            ? d 
                            : f 
                      : (e > f) 
                            ? e 
                            : f); 
        System.out.println("Maximum of three given numbers is "
                           + output); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac TernaryOperators.java
java TernaryOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Ternary Operators

2.11 Unary Operators

Unary operators have one operand. The operators are used for incrementing, decrementing, and negating the value. The operators are listed below:

  • (Unary minus) negates the input values.
  • + (Unary plus) converts the input value to positive
  • ++ (Increment) increments the input value by 1. Post Increment does increment after calculating the result. Pre-Increment increments first and then it computes the result.
  • (Decrement) decrements the input value by 1. Post decrement does decrement after calculating the result. Pre-decrement decrements first and then it computes the result.
  • ! (Logical not) inverts the input value

The code below shows the unary operators specified above with examples.

Arithmetic Operators

public class UnaryOperators {

	public UnaryOperators() {
		// TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		 int g = 40, h = 14, i = 21, j = 33, k = 87, l = 56; 
	        boolean condvar = true; 
	  

	        i = ++g; 
	        System.out.println("Value of i (++g) = " + i); 
	  

	        i = h++; 
	        System.out.println("Value of i (h++) = " + i); 
	  
	        i = --j; 
	        System.out.println("Value of i (--j) = " + i); 
	  
	        i = k--; 
	        System.out.println("Value of i (k--) = " + i); 
	  
	        System.out.println("Value of !condvar ="
	                           + !condvar); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac UnaryOperators.java
java UnaryOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Unary Operators

2.12 BitShift Operators

BitShift operators perform shift (left or right) operations on the bits. They are used for multiplying or dividing the input value by a number which is a power of two. The shift operators are :

  • << (Left shift operator) performs the left shift on the bit. If the input is void, the result will be 0. It is used for multiplying the input value by a number which is a power of two.
  • >>(Signed Right shift operator) performs the right shift on the bit. If the input is void, the result will be 0. It is used for dividing the input value by a number which is a power of two.
  • >>> (UnSigned Right shift operator) performs the right shift on the bit. If the input is void, the result will be 0. The leftmost bit is set to zero value.

The code below shows the bitshift operators specified above with examples.

BitShift Operators

public class BitShiftOperators {

	public BitShiftOperators() {
		
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
        int c = 0x0003; 
        int d = -30; 
  
       
        System.out.println("c<<2 = " + (c << 2)); 
  
       
        System.out.println("c>>2 = " + (c >> 2)); 
  
       
        System.out.println("d>>>2 = " + (d >>> 2)); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac BitShiftOperators.java
java BitShiftOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

BitShift Operators

2.13 Instance Of

The instanceof operator takes the input object and checks the object type to a specified type. It is used for checking if the input object is an instance of a class, subclass, and an instance of a class that implements an interface.

The code below shows the instance of operator specified above with examples.

InstanceOf Operators

public class InstanceOfOperators {

	public InstanceOfOperators() {
		// TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
	}

    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
  
        Employee employee = new Employee(); 
        Employee manager = new Manager(); 
  
        System.out.println("employee instanceof Employee: "
                           + (employee instanceof Employee)); 
        System.out.println("employee instanceof Manager: "
                           + (employee instanceof Manager)); 
        System.out.println("employee instanceof Delegate: "
                           + (employee instanceof Delegate)); 
  

        System.out.println("manager instanceof Employee: "
                           + (manager instanceof Employee)); 
        System.out.println("manager instanceof Manager: "
                           + (manager instanceof Manager)); 
        System.out.println("manager instanceof Delegate: "
                           + (manager instanceof Delegate)); 
    } 
} 
  
class Employee { 
} 
  
class Manager extends Employee implements Delegate { 
} 
  
interface Delegate { 
}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac InstanceOfOperators.java
java InstanceOfOperators

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Instance Of Operators

2.14 Precedence Rules

Precedence and associativity rules are applied if there are multiple operators. The rules help in finding which operators need to be executed before the other. The operators are listed below:

OperatorPrecedence RuleAssociativity
postfix++,–right to left
unary++, –,+,-,~,!right to left
multiplication, division, modulus*, /, %left to right
addition+,-left to right
shift<<, >>, >>>left to right
relational<, >, <=, >=, instanceofleft to right
equal==, !=left to right
AND (bitwise)&left to right
Exclusive OR^left to right
Inclusive OR|left to right
AND&&left to right
OR||left to right
ternary?, :right to left
assignment= , +=right to left

The operators are mentioned in the table above in the precedence order. Precedence is higher if the operator is at the top. Operators with higher precedence are executed first and then the operators with lower precedence. Operators in a row have equal precedence value. When operators have equal in an expression, the binary operators are executed from left to right and then the assignment operators from right to left.

The code below shows the precedence rules specified above with examples.

Precedence Rules

public class PrecedenceRules {

	public PrecedenceRules() {

	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		 int g = 31, h = 43, i = 4, j = 54, k = 87, l = 98; 
		  
 
	        System.out.println("g+h/j = " + (g + h / j)); 
	  

	        System.out.println("g+h*j-k/l = "
	                           + (g + h * j - k / l)); 

	}

}

The command below executes the above code snippet:

Run Command

javac PrecedenceRules.java
java PrecedenceRules

The output of the executed command is shown below.

Precedence Rules

3. Download the Source Code

Download
You can download the full source code of this example here: Basic Java Operators

Bhagvan Kommadi

Bhagvan Kommadi is the Founder of Architect Corner & has around 20 years’ experience in the industry, ranging from large scale enterprise development to helping incubate software product start-ups. He has done Masters in Industrial Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (1997) and Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1993). He is member of IFX forum,Oracle JCP and participant in Java Community Process. He founded Quantica Computacao, the first quantum computing startup in India. Markets and Markets have positioned Quantica Computacao in ‘Emerging Companies’ section of Quantum Computing quadrants. Bhagvan has engineered and developed simulators and tools in the area of quantum technology using IBM Q, Microsoft Q# and Google QScript. He has reviewed the Manning book titled : "Machine Learning with TensorFlow”. He is also the author of Packt Publishing book - "Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Go".He is member of IFX forum,Oracle JCP and participant in Java Community Process. He is member of the MIT Technology Review Global Panel.
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