Yes: in output statements like this:
System.out.println( "Result is:" + result );
The +
operator is a short way of asking for concatenation.
(If result
is a number, it is first converted
into characters before the concatenation is done.)
Here the +
operator is used instead of
using the concat()
method:
String first = "Red " ; String last = "Rose" ; String name = first + last ;
String concatenation,
done by concat()
or by +
,
always constructs a
new object
based on data in other objects.
Those objects are not altered at all.
When the operands on either side of +
are numbers, then +
means "addition".
If one or both of the operands is a String
reference,
then String
concatenation is performed.
When an operator such as +
changes
meaning depending on its arguments, it is said to
be overloaded.
Say that the following statement is added after the others:
String reversed = last + first;
Does it change first
, last
, or name
?