A value that is incremented or decremented and then not stored is at best wasted code and at worst a bug.

Noncompliant Code Example

public int pickNumber() {
  int i = 0;
  int j = 0;

  i = i++; // Noncompliant; i is still zero

  return j++; // Noncompliant; 0 returned
}

Compliant Solution

public int pickNumber() {
  int i = 0;
  int j = 0;

  i++;
  return ++j;
}