### 8.7 Increment Operators

Increment operators increase or decrease the value of a variable by 1. The operator to increment a variable is written as ‘`++`’. It may be used to increment a variable either before or after taking its value.

For example, to pre-increment the variable x, you would write `++x`. This would add one to x and then return the new value of x as the result of the expression. It is exactly the same as the expression `x = x + 1`.

To post-increment a variable x, you would write `x++`. This adds one to the variable x, but returns the value that x had prior to incrementing it. For example, if x is equal to 2, the result of the expression `x++` is 2, and the new value of x is 3.

For matrix and vector arguments, the increment and decrement operators work on each element of the operand.

Here is a list of all the increment and decrement expressions.

`++x`

  This expression increments the variable x. The value of the expression is the new value of x. It is equivalent to the expression `x = x + 1`.

`--x`

  This expression decrements the variable x. The value of the expression is the new value of x. It is equivalent to the expression `x = x - 1`.

`x++`

  This expression causes the variable x to be incremented. The value of the expression is the old value of x.

`x--`

  This expression causes the variable x to be decremented. The value of the expression is the old value of x.