Operators

Published May 6, 2021Updated May 10, 2022
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Operators are used to perform various operations on variables and values of various data types.

Arithmetic Operators

Basic math operations can be applied to int, double, and float data types:

  • + addition
  • - subtraction
  • * multiplication
  • / division
  • % modulo (yields the remainder)

These operations are not supported for other data types.

int a = 20;
int b = 10;
int result;
result = a + b; // 30
result = a - b; // 10
result = a * b; // 200
result = a / b; // 2
result = a % b; // 0

Comparison Operators

Comparison operators can be used to compare two values:

  • > greater than
  • < less than
  • >= greater than or equal to
  • <= less than or equal to
  • == equal to
  • != not equal to

They are supported for primitive data types and the result of a comparison is a boolean value true or false:

int a = 5;
int b = 3;
boolean result = a > b;
// Result now holds the boolean value true

There is also a type comparison operator, instanceof. It tests if a given object is an instance of a particular class, subclass, or interface. It will return false if the object being compared has a null value.

class Example {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Example test = new Example();
System.out.println(test instanceof Example);
// Outputs true
}
}

Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators are used to manipulate individual bits of a number.

  • & Bitwise AND
  • | Bitwise OR
  • ^ Bitwise XOR
  • ~ Bitwise complement
  • << Signed right shift operator
  • >> Signed left shift operator
  • >>> Unsigned right shift operator
  • <<< Unsigned left shift operator

They can only be operated on data of int, char, byte, long, and short.

int a = 5;
int b = 3;
int bitwiseAnd = a & b;
// 1
int bitwiseOr = a | b;
// 7
int bitwiseXor = a ^ b;
// 6
int bitwiseComplement = ~a;
// -6
int bitwiseRightShift = a >> b;
// 0
int bitwiseLeftShift = a << b;
// 40

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