Operator Precedence in Java

By: Daniel Malcolm in Java Tutorials on 2007-10-13

Operators are special symbols that perform specific operations on one, two, or three operands, and then return a result.

As we explore the operators of the Java programming language, it may be helpful for you to know ahead of time which operators have the highest precedence. The operators in the following table are listed according to precedence order. The closer to the top of the table an operator appears, the higher its precedence. Operators with higher precedence are evaluated before operators with relatively lower precedence. Operators on the same line have equal precedence. When operators of equal precedence appear in the same expression, a rule must govern which is evaluated first. All binary operators except for the assignment operators are evaluated from left to right; assignment operators are evaluated right to left.

**Operator Precedence**
Operators	Precedence
postfix	`expr++ expr--`
unary	`++expr --expr +expr -expr ~ !`
multiplicative	`* / %`
additive	`+ -`
shift	`<< >> >>>`
relational	`< > <= >= instanceof`
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 ">>>".

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