15.13

Postfix Expressions

EXPRESSIONS

15.13   Postfix Expressions

Postfix expressions include uses of the postfix

++

 and

 operators. Also, as dis 

cussed in  15.7, names are not considered to be primary expressions, but are han 

dled separately in the grammar to avoid certain ambiguities. They become

interchangeable only here, at the level of precedence of postfix expressions.

PostfixExpression:

Primary

ExpressionName

PostIncrementExpression

PostDecrementExpression

15.13.1   Names

A name occurring in an expression may be, syntactically, an

ExpressionName

( 6.5). The meaning of such an

ExpressionName

 depends on its form:

If it is a simple name, that is, just an

Identifier

, then there are two cases:

N

If the

Identifier

 occurs within the scope of a parameter or local variable

named by that same

Identifier

, then the type of the

ExpressionName

 is the

declared type of the parameter or local variable; moreover, the value of the

ExpressionName

 is a variable, namely, the parameter or local variable itself.

N

Otherwise, the

ExpressionName

 is treated exactly as if it had been the field

access expression ( 15.10):

 this.

Identifier

containing the keyword

this

 ( 15.7.2).

Otherwise, if it is a qualified name of the form

PackageName

.

Identifier

, then

a compile time error occurs.

Otherwise, if it is a qualified name of the form

TypeName

.

Identifier

, then it

is refers to a

static

 field of the class or interface named by the

TypeName

. A

compile time error occurs if

TypeName

 does not name a class or interface. A

compile time error occurs if the class or interface named by

TypeName

 does

not contain an accessible static field named by the

Identifier

. The type of the

ExpressionName

 is the declared type of the

static

 field. The value of the

ExpressionName

 is a variable, namely, the

static

 field itself.

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