C# in a nutshell example misunderstanding ++ unary operator increment
c#, loops, while-loop
Solution
The `++` operator increments the value and returns the original value.
So when `x` was 5, `x` was incremented and the condition `5 > 5` is evaluated.
Then, when `x` was 6, `x` was incremented and the condition `6 > 5` is evaluated, which results in the `break`. Because `x` was still incremented, the value of `x` in the end is 7.
People often say that when the `++` operator is use as a postfix, the increment is executed after the comparison, but this is not technically true, which is shown by decompilation in LinqPad:
int x = 5;
if (x++ > 5)
Console.WriteLine(x);
IL:
IL_0001: ldc.i4.5
IL_0002: stloc.0 // x
IL_0003: ldloc.0 // x
IL_0004: dup
IL_0005: ldc.i4.1
IL_0006: add // <---- Increment
IL_0007: stloc.0 // x <-- Result of increment is popped from the stack and stored in a variable
IL_0008: ldc.i4.5
IL_0009: cgt // <---- Comparison
IL_000B: ldc.i4.0
IL_000C: ceq
IL_000E: stloc.1 // CS$4$0000
IL_000F: ldloc.1 // CS$4$0000
IL_0010: brtrue.s IL_0019
IL_0012: ldloc.0 // x
IL_0013: call System.Console.WriteLine
Problem
I am reading C# 5.0 in a nutshell and I have the following statements: ``` int x = 0; while (true) { if (x++ > 5) break ; // break from the loop } x.Dump(); ``` Executing the statements on LINQPad 4 the output is 7. I still don't understand WHY?. Why it is not 6 being the condition: x++>5