Difference between prefix and postfix operators in C#?

Prefix Operator

The increment operator ++ if used as prefix on a variable, the value of variable gets incremented by 1. After that the value is returned unlike Postfix operator. It is called Prefix increment operator. In the same way the prefix decrement operator works but it decrements by 1.

For example, an example of prefix operator −

++a;

The following is an example demonstrating Prefix increment operator −

Example

 Live Demo

using System;
class Program {
   static void Main() {

      int a, b;
      a = 50;
      Console.WriteLine(++a);

      b = a;
      Console.WriteLine(a);
      Console.WriteLine(b);
   }
}

output

51
51
51

Postfix Operator

The increment operator ++ if used as postfix on a variable, the value of variable is first returned and then gets incremented by 1. It is called Postfix increment operator. In the same way the decrement operator works but it decrements by 1.

An example of Postfix operator.

a++;

The following is an example showing how to work with postfix operator −

Example

 Live Demo

using System;
class Program {
   static void Main() {

      int a, b;
      a = 10;
      Console.WriteLine(a++);

      b = a;
      Console.WriteLine(a);
      Console.WriteLine(b);
   }
}

Output

10
11
11