What am I missing here??

Question

Read the following and pls explain me what im doing wrong :

int a = 3;
int b = 2;
b = a++;
cout << ++b;

What will be printed out "b" ?

My answer is 5.

where,
b = a++
means,
b = 3 + 1; so b = 4

so,
cout << ++b;
means
1 + 4 = 5 zo it will cout out 5......right???

Answer 1

nope.

a++ is not a+1. Its AFTER the operation , a+1

and ++b is BEFORE the operation

Answer 2

no, a in line 3 will be incremented after the line 3, so b gets old value of a which is 3. in line 4 b becomes 4 because incrementation is done prior the execution of line..

a=++x is like
x=x+1
a=x

a=x++ is like
a=x
x=x+1

Answer 3

b = a++ is a post increment operator.
1. b = a // b = 3
2. a = a + 1 // a = 4

to get the answer of 5, do
b = ++a, which is the pre increment operator.
1. a = a + 1 // a = 4
2. b = a // b = 4