programming-basics: Why it is printing same value even after four post increment?

a=a++ is evaluated as:

int oldValue = a;
a = a + 1;
a = oldValue; // 3rd Step

if you remove assignment operator it´ll print the new value incremented every time whenever you used increment operator.


class PostIncrement{
public static void main(String arg[]){
int a=10;
a=a++; //with assignment operator
System.out.println(a);
a++; //without assignment operator
a++;
System.out.println(a);
}
}


Output:
-----------------------------
10
12

"x = x++;" is almost certainly a mistake in any program.
http://stackoverflow.com/a/12033710/452708

Postfix operator means First use then increment.
Additionally, assigning value back to the variable "a" using "=" will never let the value increment using Postfix operator.

int a=10;
a=a++; // Variable a gets assigned Original Value 10 here before postfix can operate
System.out.println(a); //Prints 10
a=a++; // Variable a gets assigned Original Value 10 here before postfix can operate
a=a++; // Variable a gets assigned Original Value 10 here before postfix can operate
a=a++; // Variable a gets assigned Original Value 10 here before postfix can operate
System.out.println(a); //Prints 10