I found this interesting question on stackoverflow:
Many of us may believe that:
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>i +=j;
is just a shortcut for
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>i=i+j;
But let's try this:
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>int i=5;
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>long j=8;
Then i=i+j; will not compile, but i+=j; will compile fine.
Dose it mean that in fact i+=j; is a shortcut for something like: i=(type of i)(i+j) ????
Answer:
As always with these questions, the JLS holds the answer. In this case §15.26.2 Compound Assignment Operators.
An extract:
A compound assignment expression of the form E1 op= E2 is equivalent to E1 = (T)((E1) op (E2)), where T is the type of E1, except that E1 is evaluated only once.
An example cited from §15.26.2
[...] the following code is correct:
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>short x = 3;
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>x += 4.6;
and results in x having the value 7 because it is equivalent to:
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>short x = 3;
<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>x = (short)(x + 4.6);
In other words, the assumption is correct.