Why does this loop print 1 indefinitely?

i++ already means i = i + 1.

int i = 1; while (i <= 10) { System.out.println(i); i++; }

You're constantly keeping i at basically 1 + 1, you're referencing the value stored at i, then adding 1 to it, and resetting i to 1 each loop.

Because your expression

i = i++;

doesn't work the way u think it does. i++ is postfix increment, which being alone equals to i = i + 1, but if it is used in any sort of assignment or other operation first the value i is used in that operation and only afterwards that value is incremented. So for ur loop to work the way u want i++ is enough. Why it works the way it works is because i is assigned a new value which equals to i, and then the old value of i (which is no longer stored in i, and kind of just hanging there) is incremented (which is useless and lost), atleast that's how i see it, might be wrong tho If u use IDE, it should warn u of mistakes like that, and even provide some sort of information

You are not incrementing variable properly. You have already declared it as being 1 on first line so when you increment you simply add to variable versus trying to set its value to something else