11.1.2. Pre/Post Increment and Decrement

The ++ and -- operators are commonly used by programmers as shortcuts for incrementing and decrementing variables. The following three WMLScript statements are equivalent:

x = x + 1;

++x;

x++;

If the ++ operator is placed before a variable (e.g. ++x), we call this pre-increment; if the ++ operator is placed after a variable (e.g. x++), we call this post-increment. The following WMLScript examples can help you understand the difference between them:

var x = 100;
var y = ++x;

After execution, x has the value 101 while y has the value 101. x is incremented first and then the result is assigned to y. The above block of code is equivalent to:

var x = 100;
x = x + 1;
var y = x;

Now let's see an example of post-increment:

var x = 100;
var y = x++;

After execution, x has the value 101 while y has the value 100. The initial value of x (i.e. 100) is assigned to y first and then x is incremented. The above block of code is equivalent to:

var x = 100;
var y = x;
x = x + 1;

The -- operator is used in a similar way. If the -- operator is placed before a variable (e.g. --x), we call this pre-decrement; if the -- operator is placed after a variable (e.g. x--), we call this post-decrement. Below is an example of pre-decrement:

var x = 100;
var y = --x;

After execution, x has the value 99 while y has the value 99, since x is decremented first before its value is assigned to y.

Below is an example of post-decrement:

var x = 100;
var y = x--;

After execution, x has the value 99 while y has the value 100, since the initial value of x, i.e. 100, is assigned to y first. After that x is decremented.

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