Java Basic Operator Return Type [duplicate]

Question

Is Java Operators return int type?

short a = 1;
short b = 2;

short c = a&b;
short d = a+b;
long e = a&b;

in case of 'c', 'd' they have type mismatch error. why? and case of 'e' no error. why??

Answer 1

Any operation between two variables of integer type that are smaller than int results in an int. So:

short + short -> int
short + byte -> int

etc. It's mentioned in the Java Language Specification.

Therefore you have to cast the result of a + b to short in order to assign it back to a variable of type short. Please note, that you may lose data if you do so.

However long is bigger than int. The assigment ist valid.