Why would prefix increment/decriment operator be evaluated before postfix even though former has lower precedence?

Question

From what I have read it seems postfix increment and decrement operators have higher precedence over prefixed ones, but in an expression where both are being used the prefix gets evaluated first. I am reading from SCJP A comprehensive Khalid. Any recommendation on resources for clearly understanding operators and assignment in java would be helpful.

Answer 1

Because that's how prefix operators work. They are defined by the language to occure before postfix operators. The precidence has nothing to do with it.

Answer 2

Not correct. They have the same precedence. See the Java grammar. However of course pre-increment is evaluated before post-increment. That's what the words mean.