Pre/post increment/decrement and operator order confusion

Question

I was going through some exercises but I am confused in this one:

public static int f (int x, int y) {
  int b=y--;
  while (b>0) {
    if (x%2!=0)  {
      --x;
      y=y-2; 
    }
    else { 
      x=x/2;
      b=b-x-1; 
    }
  }
  return x+y; 
} 

What is the purpose of b=y--? So, for example, x=5 and y=5 when we first go inside of while loop (while (b>0)) will b = 4 or 5? When I am running the code in my computer b is 5. And the return is 3. It is really unclear to me. Sorry if I am unclear in my question.

Answer 1

int b=y--; first assignes b=y and then decrements y (y--).

Also take a look at the prefix/postfix unary increment operator.

This example (taken from the linked page) demonstrates it:

class PrePostDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args){
        int i = 3;
        i++;
        // prints 4
        System.out.println(i);
        ++i;               
        // prints 5
        System.out.println(i);
        // prints 6
        System.out.println(++i);
        // prints 6
        System.out.println(i++);
        // prints 7
        System.out.println(i);
    }
}