Question

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Weird java behavior with casts to primitive types

Why does this code in Java,

int i = (byte) + (char) - (int) + (long) - 1;
System.out.println(i);

prints 1? Why does it even compile?

Source: Java Code Geeks

Answer 1

What you are doing is combining type casts with unary operators.

So let’s see:

First, you have the value -1, which you cast to the type long.

Then, you perform the unary operation +, which doesn’t change the value, so you still have (long) -1.

Then, you cast it to int, so we now have int -1. Then, you use unary operator -, so we have -(-1), which is 1.

Then you cast it to char, so we have char 1. Then, you use unary operator +, so you still have 1.

Finally, the value is cast to byte, so you have byte 1. And then it is once again (implicitly) cast to int.