What is the difference between prefix and postfix

Question

The following code prints a value of 9. Why? Here return(i++) will return a value of 11 and due to --i the value should be 10 itself, can anyone explain how this works?

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
    int i= fun(10);
    printf("%d\n",--i);
}

int fun (int i)
{
    return(i++);
}

Answer 1

It has to do with the way the post-increment operator works. It returns the value of i and then increments the value.

Answer 2

Actually what happens is when you use postfix i.e. i++, the initial value of i is used for returning rather than the incremented one. After this the value of i is increased by 1. And this happens with any statement that uses i++, i.e. first initial value of i is used in the expression and then it is incremented.

And the exact opposite happens in prefix. If you would have returned ++i, then the incremented value i.e. 11 is returned, which is because adding 1 is performed first and then it is returned.

Answer 3

In fact return (i++) will only return 10.

The ++ and -- operators can be placed before or after the variable, with different effects. If they are before, then they will be processed and returned and essentially treated just like (i-1) or (i+1), but if you place the ++ or -- after the i, then the return is essentailly

return i;
i + 1;

So it will return 10 and never increment it.

Answer 4

The function returns before i is incremented because you are using a post-fix operator (++). At any rate, the increment of i is not global - only to respective function. If you had used a pre-fix operator, it would be 11 and then decremented to 10.

So you then return i as 10 and decrement it in the printf function, which shows 9 not 10 as you think.

Answer 5

Prefix:

int a=0;

int b=++a;          // b=1,a=1 

before assignment the value of will be incremented.

Postfix:

int a=0;
int b=a++;  // a=1,b=0 

first assign the value of 'a' to 'b' then increment the value of 'a'

Answer 6

There is a big difference between postfix and prefix versions of ++.

In the prefix version (i.e., ++i), the value of i is incremented, and the value of the expression is the new value of i.

In the postfix version (i.e., i++), the value of i is incremented, but the value of the expression is the original value of i.

Let's analyze the following code line by line:

int i = 10;   // (1)
int j = ++i;  // (2)
int k = i++;  // (3)

1. i is set to 10 (easy).
2. Two things on this line:
   • i is incremented to 11.
   • The new value of i is copied into j. So j now equals 11.
3. Two things on this line as well:
   • i is incremented to 12.
   • The original value of i (which is 11) is copied into k. So k now equals 11.

So after running the code, i will be 12 but both j and k will be 11.

The same stuff holds for postfix and prefix versions of --.