Why do the following two lines of code produce different outputs?

The first line of code, System.out.println(7 + 3);, performs an arithmetic operation. In Java, the + operator between two integers results in their sum, which is evaluated to 10. Therefore, when this line is executed, it outputs the result of the addition.

In contrast, the second line, System.out.println("7 + 3");, uses double quotes around the content. In Java, anything enclosed in double quotes is treated as a string literal, meaning it is interpreted literally and not evaluated as an expression. As a result, this line simply outputs the text 7 + 3, rather than calculating any mathematical operation.

These two behaviors highlight the distinction between an expression that calculates a value and a string that displays text as it is. Understanding the difference between evaluating expressions and treating data as strings is crucial when programming, as it ensures the intended output is produced.