Chaining methods is giving me unexpected results, and the arguments are being evaluated in reverse order?

In the second version, you are invoking many operations on the same node, and not considering the implications of evaluation-order. The expression a. F(b) is kind of the same as A::f(a, b) where a is of class A and the compiler is free to evaluate the parameters a and be in any order it sees fit.

C++ does not guarantee what order sub-expressions will be evaluated in.

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