Why isn't the " i++ " evoked first in this code?

Question

I could just leave well enough alone here, but I'm curious. In this code, each byte in "wordbytes" is set individually from 0 to 1, ... 3. But why does it start at wordbytes[0], if "i++" is in the brackets? Doesn't this tell solidity we want to change the byte with the index of "i + 1", which would be 1 the first time around - aka the second byte?

bytes wordbytes = new bytes(4);
uint public i;


function setbyte(uint8 _utf8) public {
    wordbytes[i++] = byte(_utf8);                          

}

Doing the code in the following way - in which "i" is incremented after the byte is set - works the same:

bytes wordbytes = new bytes(4);
uint public i;


function setbyte(uint8 _utf8) public {
    wordbytes[i] = byte(_utf8);
    i++;                  

}

What tells solidity to increment "i" after "wordbytes[i]" is set in the first example?

Answer 1

The placement of the ++ is what determines that it will occur after.

If you want the i to be incremented before it is evaluated, you put the ++ before it.

So

  wordbytes[i++]

Uses the old value to access the wordbytes array, then increments it after.

  wordbytes[++i]

Increments it first, then accesses the array.

Answer 2

There you have answered yourself.

Doing the code in the following way - in which "i" is incremented after the byte is set - works the same :

The two scripts you have shown does the same thing because i++ increments the value of i after the current statement is executed.

This is not only the Solidity thing but is of almost all of the major programming languages convention. The incremental operators ++i and i++ are respectively increase value of i before and after the statement in which they are used.

If you want to increase the value of i beforehand use ++i.

wordbytes[++i] = byte(_utf8);

This is same as:

i++ // or ++i or i=i+1
wordbytes[i] = byte(_utf8);