The Java Language: Assignment

While variable initialization (i.e., declaration and assignment together) is considered a statement with no resulting value, variable assignment alone is an expression:

 int i, j; // statement  
 i = 5; // both expression and statement  

Normally, we rely on assignment for its side effects alone, but an assignment can be used as a value in another part of an expression:

 j = ( i = 5 );  

Again, relying on order of evaluation extensively (in this case, using compound assignments in complex expressions) can make code obscure and hard to read.