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PHP

Posted by Andrew Lopez
Andrew Lopez
4,566 Points

Question about post-increment operator

Why does the following code equal 5 and not 6.

$a = 5; var_dump($a++);

Thank you.

1 Answer

Jason Anders
MOD
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points

HI Andrew,

The post-increment operator returns the value first and then will increment it. So, here it returns 5 to the var_dump method call and once that call is complete, only then will the variable increment, so the var_dump() method is never aware of the incrementation, as it happened after the method is called.
If you want it to return the value + 1 to the method, you will need to use the pre-increment operator.

Hope that helps to clear it up.

Keep Coding! :) :dizzy:

Andrew Lopez
Andrew Lopez
4,566 Points

Thank you Jason! Definitely helps me understand the order of operation more clearer.