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General Discussion

10 February, 2015 - 14:58

Unary positive also known as plus and unary negative also known as minus are unique operators. The plus and minus when used with a constant value represent the concept that the values are either positive or negative. Let's consider:

+5 + -2

We have three operators in this order: unary positive, addition, and unary negative. The answer to this expression is a positive 3. As you can see, one must differentiate between when the plus sign means unary positive and when it means addition. Unary negative and subtraction have the same problem. Let's consider:

-2 -+5

The expression evaluates to negative 7. Let's consider:

7 - -2

First constants that do not have a unary minis in front of them are assumed (the default) to be positive. When you subtract a negative number it is like adding, thus the expression evaluates to positive 9.