If I have an if statement like:
if(risingEdge && cnt == 3'b111)
begin
...
end
Will it check on cnt if risingEdge is not true?
Does this even matter inside of an HDL?
For simulation it is undefined as to whether short-circuited expressions are evaluated or not. In the above example it makes no difference, but if you have a function call on the right hand side then you may run into problems with undefined side effects.
See Gotcha #52 in "Verilog and SystemVerilog Gotchas: 101 Common Coding Errors and How to Avoid Them" by Stuart Sutherland and Don Mills.