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Behavior of increment and decrement operators in Python

Last Updated : April 21, 2025

Increment and Decrement Operators

Python is considered to be a consistent and readable language. Unlike in Java, python does not support the increment (++) and decrement (--) operators, both in precedence and in return value.

Example

For example, in python the x++ and ++x or x-- or --x is not valid.

x=1
x++

Output

  File "main.py", line 2
    x++
      ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Example

x=1

print(--x)
# 1
print(++x)
# 1

print(x--)

'''
  File "/home/main.py", line 8
    print(x--)
             ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
'''

Reason for the above errors

The reason for this is, in Python integers are immutable and hence cannot be changed.

Implementing Increment and Decrement Operators

To implement increase and decrement operators in Python, you have to use the compound assignment with + and - signs. Use += to increment the variable's value and -= to decrement the variable's value. Or, simply perform the arithmetic operations (x = x + 1 to increment and x = x - 1 to decrement).

Example

# Initialize a variable with 10
x = 10

# Incrementing the value
x += 1
print(x)

# Decrementing the value
x -= 1
print(x)

# Incrementing the value
x += 1
print(x)

# Incrementing the value
x += 1
print(x)

Output

11
10
11
12

Python Increment and Decrement Operators Exercise

Select the correct option to complete each statement about increment and decrement in Python.

1. Python does ___ support the ++ and -- operators. --Select-- not fully partially
2. To increment a variable x by 1 in Python, you write ___. --Select-- x = x + 1 x++ ++x
3. The expression x++ in Python will result in ___. --Select-- an error or no increment x increased by 1 x decreased by 1

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