What is the difference between ++x and x++?

Answer 1

x++
value is used then incremented
++x
value is incremented then used

to be put simply

Answer 2

The difference lies in when x is actually incremented. Say you have:

int x = 0:
cout >> ++x; // Prints "1"

The output of this would print "1", because the + signs BEFORE the variable indicate that x should immediately increment. However, having + signs AFTER the variable tells the computer that it should increment x only after the computation is complete (once the program moves to the next line). Like so:

int x = 0;
cout >> x++; // Prints "0"
cout >> x; // Prints "1" since the computer remembered to increment

Answer 3

What's the difference between ++x and x++?