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Inconsistency in application of the increment operator when used in expressions

January 26, 2024

In JavaScript we have postfix (x++) and prefix (++x)increment like many other C derivative syntax. I know that both prefix and postfix increment has a higher precedence than addition.

So if we do the following, y gets the value 2, as x (as 1) gets added to x (as 1) and then x gets incremented to 2.

x = 1
y = x + x++

However, if then I do the following y gets the value 3. Why is it not 2 like the other example? Or conversely, why is the other example giving 2 if the rules of precedence are being obeyed?

x = 1
y = x++ + x

Another example of where you can see this is in the following examples:

In this example y has the value 4. But really what is going on here semantically? I guess because its assign and then increment, the x first represents 1 so we have 1 + 1, then its incremented, and next we add it to x (which is now 2) making 4.

x = 1
y = x + x++ + x

But, then we have an inconsistency. Take a look at the following, what is semantically going on here? The result I got in y was 5, and not 6 like I expected.

x = 1
y = x + ++x + x

Here is my take what I think should be happening First x++ is evaluated incrementing x to 2, then this is added to the first x (which is now 2) making 4, this value should then be added to the second x making 6. But, that is not what happens Y gets 5 when I try this in the REPL.

Why is it 5?

>Solution :

JavaScript is strictly evaluated left-to-right. That means the left operand of + is evaluated before its right operand.

If the left-hand side expression changes x, this change will already be visible when the right-hand side is evaluated
If the right-hand side expression changes x, this change happens only after the left-hand side was evaluated

So for your examples, we have the step-by-step evaluations

y = x + x++ // x: 1
y = 1 + x++ // x: 1
y = 1 + 1 // x: 2
y = 2 // x: 2

y = x++ + x // x: 1
y = 1 + x // x: 2
y = 1 + 2 // x: 2
y = 3 // x: 2

y = x + x++ + x // x: 1
y = 1 + x++ + x // x: 1
y = 1 + 1 + x // x: 2
y = 2 + x // x: 2
y = 2 + 2 // x: 2
y = 4 // x: 2

y = x + ++x + x // x: 1
y = 1 + ++x + x // x: 1
y = 1 + 2 + x // x: 2
y = 3 + x // x: 2
y = 3 + 2 // x: 2
y = 5 // x: 2