The ternary operator and If/Else

The ternary operator and If/Else

December 9, 2007 in Development, Javascript, PHP
Written by: Dag Jonny Nedrelid

The ternary operator “:?” to make If/Else structures smaller and compact is a beautiful thing. Evaluate the following example and how it could be written in a much more compact and faster way. You can use this technique in several languages. I have personally used it during PHP and Javascript quite often.




 Example with "if/else"
$true_or_false = true;
$need_a_value = '';

if($true_or_false == true) {
  $need_a_value = 'It was true.';
} else {
  $need_a_value = 'It was not true.';
} 
 Example with the ternary operator "?:"
$true_or_false = true;
$need_a_value = '';

$need_a_value = ($true_or_false==true?'It was true.':'It was not true.');

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My name is Dag Jonny Nedrelid. I'm an IT consultant and computer programmer who lives in Southern Norway. Computers have been one of my hobbies and line of work since 1995.

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