# Println order help?
**URL:** https://discourse.processing.org/t/println-order-help/16928
**Category:** Coding Questions
**Created:** [January 7, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/println-order-help/16928 "2020-01-07T10:26:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crazybob5](https://discourse.processing.org/u/crazybob5)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/println-order-help/16928/1 "2020-01-07T10:26:11Z")
Can someone explain me the order of printlines here?
```auto
int a = 4;
int b = 7;
void setup() {
println("Setup: " + knutsel(a, b));
}
int knutsel(int b, int a) {
println("Knutsel: " + a);
println("Knutsel: " + b);
return kwispel(a, 2*b) + b;
}
int kwispel(int a, int b) {
println("Kwispel: " + a);
println("Kwispel: " + b);
return a - b;
}
```
the result =
Knutsel: 7
Knutsel: 4
Kwispel: 7
Kwispel: 8
Setup: 3
---
### Author:  [@hamoid](https://discourse.processing.org/u/hamoid)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2020, 11:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/println-order-help/16928/2 "2020-01-07T11:12:30Z")
Hi!
Function calls are not evaluated until all its arguments are evaluated.
So you should not read the code as if it was English, but from the inside out. It does not print "Setup: " and then go find out how much `knutsel()` is worth. Instead, it first evaluates `knutsel()` and when that value is known, then it can run the `println()` inside `setup()`.
The same sequence happens with simple math and parenthesis. You start from the inside. For instance:
```
4*((3*(1+2))-2) =
4*((3* 3 )-2) =
4*( 9 -2) =
4* 7 =
28
```
So with the `println`, if you call
```
println("the result is " + (3*3));
```
it will not first print "the result is " and then figure out `3*3`. What it will do is first figure out `3*3` which is 9 and then print the whole string at once.
Does that solve the mystery?
---
### Author:  [@crazybob5](https://discourse.processing.org/u/crazybob5)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/println-order-help/16928/3 "2020-01-08T20:58:49Z")
Nope it doesn’t solve the mystery ☹
---
### Author:  [@hamoid](https://discourse.processing.org/u/hamoid)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2020, 9:19am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/println-order-help/16928/4 "2020-01-09T09:19:42Z")
So what order do you expect instead?
Maybe the confusion is that in `knutsel` the `a` and `b` arguments are swapped? So what was `a` is now called `b`, and the other way around?