Question

When the increment or decrement operator is placed before the operand (or to the operand’s left), the operator is being used in __________ mode.

Short answer

Answer: Prefix mode.

Step-by-step solution

Understand Increment and Decrement Operators

Increment and decrement operators are unary operators that increase or decrease the value of a variable by one. In programming languages like C, C++, and Java, these operators are represented by the symbols ++ and --.

Introduce Prefix and Postfix Modes

There are two modes for increment and decrement operators: prefix mode and postfix mode. - Prefix mode: The operator is placed before the operand (left side). In this mode, the value of the operand is changed before the expression is evaluated. - Postfix mode: The operator is placed after the operand (right side). In this mode, the value of the operand is changed after the expression is evaluated.

Answer the Given Exercise

According to the exercise, we need to determine which mode is being used when the increment/decrement operator is placed before the operand (left side). As explained in Step 2, this is called the Prefix mode. So, when the increment or decrement operator is placed before the operand, it is being used in the Prefix mode.

Provide Examples

For better understanding, let's consider some examples using increment operators in both prefix and postfix modes: - Prefix Mode (++x): 1. int x = 5; 2. int result = ++x; (Increasing the value of x by 1 before evaluating the expression) 3. result equals 6, and x equals 6. - Postfix Mode (x++): 1. int x = 5; 2. int result = x++; (Evaluating the expression before increasing the value of x by 1) 3. result equals 5, and x equals 6.