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Result type determination begins from the top of the table; the compiler applies the first matching rule. The table refers to constant expressions of type int (such as '0' or variables declared final) as constant int; the "Operand 2" and "Operand 3" columns refer to operand2 and operand3 (from the above definition), respectively. In the table, constant int refers to constant expressions of type int (such as '0' or variables declared final).

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This noncompliant example prints {{65}}—the ASCII equivalent of A, instead of the expected A, because the second operand (alpha) must be promoted to type int. The numeric promotion occurs because the value of the third operand (the constant expression '12345123456') is too large to be represented as a char.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    System.out.print(true  ? alpha  : 12345123456);
  }
}

Compliant Solution

The compliant solution explicitly states the intended result type by casting alpha to type int. Casting 12345 123456 to type char would ensure that both operands of the conditional expression have the same type, resulting in A being printed. However, it would result in data loss when an integer larger than Character.MAX_VALUE is downcast to type char. This compliant solution avoids potential truncation by casting alpha to type int, the wider of the operand types.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    // Cast alpha as an int to explicitly state that the type of the 
    // conditional expression should be int.
    System.out.print(true  ? ((int) alpha)  : 12345123456);
  }
}

Noncompliant Code Example

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