Order of evaluation of arguments using std::cout

The evaluation order of elements in an expression is unspecified (except some very particular cases, such as the && and || operators and the ternary operator, which introduce sequence points); so, it's not guaranteed that test will be evaluated before or after foo(test) (which modifies it).

If your code relies on a particular order of evaluation the simplest method to obtain it is to split your expression in several separated statements.

The answer to this question changed in C++17.

Evaluation of overloaded operators are now sequenced in the same way as for built-in operators (C++17 [over.match.oper]/2).

Furthermore, the <<, >> and subscripting operators now have the left operand sequenced before the right, and the postfix-expression of a function call is sequenced before evaluation of the arguments.

(The other binary operators retain their previous sequencing, e.g. + is still unsequenced).

So the code in the question must now output Value of test is : 0 Return value of function is : 1 Value of test : 1. But the advice "Don't do this" is still reasonable, given that it will take some time for everybody to update to C++17.

Order of evaluation is unspecified. It is not left-to-right, right-to-left, or anything else.

Don't do this.