For the question as below, if int y = x and x = 5, why y = y + x = 8 and not 10 (since we have int y=x)?

Question

int x;
x = 3;
int y = x;
x = 5;
y = y + x;
System.out.println(x);
System.out.println(y);

The output is:
5
8

Answer 1

This is because of the order in which java reads the code. So, y = x when x = 3. After this line x is then changed to 5; however, y is still 3 because that is what x was when y = x.

If the statement "y = x;" would have come after "x = 5;" then y would equal 5.

In other words, the statement "y = x;" in java is not the same as saying y will always be equal to x. y is merely set to whatever value x currently holds.

Comments

Yes, it might help if you read "=" as "is assigned the value of", instead of "equals".

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Thank you, it helps a lot !!