questions on conditional operator in java

Question

I hava read from Khalid Mugal and others that the conditional operator is right associative.

Can someone explain to me what this means and show me a simple example?

Answer 1

It is right-associative because it is specified as such in the Java Language Specs :

The conditional operator is syntactically right-associative (it groups right-to-left), so that a?b:c?d:e?f:g means the same as a?b:(c?d:(e?f:g)).

The quote from the original spec provides an example (or at least something, that can be used to write a quick main based demo in Java)

Answer 2

Conditional Operator ?: is right associative because right side evaluates first

Explaniation A simple expression of conditional operator is

condition ? value if true : value if false

and an example is

boolean ? (10+20):(30+40)

in any case either true or false, its evaluate/calculate values on right side first then returns value according to condition

Further Explaination : It is syntactically right-associative (it groups right-to-left), so that a?b:c?d:e?f:g means the same as a?b:(c?d:(e?f:g)).

Also consider Wiki defination

"The associativity (or fixity) of an operator is a property that determines how operators of the same precedence are grouped in the absence of parentheses ."

Hopes that helps