Can you explain what the operation of decreasing a variable's value by one means?

Decrementing a variable by one in Java is usually done using the decrement operator --. It decreases the current value of the variable by 1.

There are two forms:

• Postfix decrement: i-- — returns the current value first, then decreases.
• Prefix decrement: --i — decreases the value first, then returns.

Example:

int i = 5;
System.out.println(i--); // Outputs 5, then i becomes 4
System.out.println(--i); // First i becomes 3, then outputs 3