The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

15.7.4 Argument Lists are Evaluated Left-to-Right EXPRESSIONS
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So, for example, the test program:
strictfp class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
double d = 8e+307;
System.out.println(4.0 * d * 0.5);
System.out.println(2.0 * d);
}
}
prints:
Infinity
1.6e+308
because the first expression overflows and the second does not.
In contrast, integer addition and multiplication are provably associative in the
Java programming language.
For example a+b+c, where a, b, and c are local variables (this simplifying
assumption avoids issues involving multiple threads and volatile variables),
will always produce the same answer whether evaluated as (a+b)+c or a+(b+c);
if the expression b+c occurs nearby in the code, a smart compiler may be able to
use this common subexpression.
15.7.4 Argument Lists are Evaluated Left-to-Right
In a method or constructor invocation or class instance creation expression, argument
expressions may appear within the parentheses, separated by commas. Each
argument expression appears to be fully evaluated before any part of any argument
expression to its right.
Thus:
class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s = "going, ";
print3(s, s, s = "gone");
}
static void print3(String a, String b, String c) {
System.out.println(a + b + c);
}
}
always prints:
going, going, gone
because the assignment of the string "gone" to s occurs after the first two arguments
to print3 have been evaluated.
DRAFT