Stop using if...else 🚫 for every thing. There is a better option than if...else which is simpler to write and less line of code. This alternative is called Ternary Operator. C, C++, Java, Javascript and many more programming language have this operator.
🤷♂️ What is ternary operator ?
Ternary operator is a decision making or conditional operator which is frequently used as the alternative of if...else. In mathematics, a ternary operation is an n-ary operation with n = 3 from there we get the name, an operator that takes three arguments. sometimes it takes more than three argument we will talk about that later.
✍ How to write it ?
writing a ternary is as easy as writing if...else typically both are same just some symbols are used instead of if & else keywords.
syntax
condition ? True expression : False expression
a condition followed by a question mark (?), then an expression to execute if the condition is true followed by a colon (:), and finally the expression to execute if the condition is false. Then end it with semicolon (;) if required.
How to assign value to a variable using this ?
You are probably thinking 🤔 if we are want to find the greatest number in two numbers and store it to a variable then we have to write this m > n ? max = m : max = n no there is better option.
max = m > n ? m : n
Here the greatest number will automatically assign to max, we do not need to do max = m or max = n which we do in case of if...else.
🔗 Chained ternary operator
The ternary operator can be "chained" 🔗 similar to an if … else if … else if … else chain in the following way:
condition1 ? value1
: condition2 ? value2
: condition3 ? value3
: value4;
Examples
Let's have some example to practice the ternary operator.
Here all the example are written in C language. C++ and JavaScript both have same syntax as C the only difference is in variable declaring and printing something in the screen.
Example 1: Find the greatest number between m and n.
int m = 5, n = 4;
(m > n) ? printf("m is greater than n that is %d > %d", m, n)
: printf("n is greater than m that is %d > %d", n, m);
#### Output
m is greater than n that is 5 > 4
Example 2: Find the smallest number between m and n.
int m = 5, n = 4, min;
min = (m < n) ? m : n;
printf("%d is the smallest number between %d and %d", min, m, n);
#### Output
5 is the greatest number between 5 and 4
Example 3: chained ternary operator
int i = 13;
i < 10 ? printf("%d is smaller than 10", i)
: i == 10 ? printf("%d equals to 10", i)
: i > 10 && i < 20 ? printf("%d is greater than 10 but less than 20", i)
: printf("%d is greater than 20", i);
#### Output
13 is greater than 10 but less than 20
Why you need this ?
I am not saying that If...else is useless, you can use them anywhere you want. There is a vary big but 🍑. You can not use it everywhere. If you are a react developer than you will know what I am saying. Since ternary operator can be used within the return statement of a JavaScript function, in react like library or framework ternary operator is used most. So knowing this concept will be helpful for you.
Top comments (2)
Nesting/chaining the conditional operator (or "ternary") is considered a code smell: rules.sonarsource.com/cpp/RSPEC-3358
Actually some consider the ternary operator itself to be a code smell (rules.sonarsource.com/cpp/RSPEC-1774). But I think that is too strong to say that generally as there are lots of places where it can help with readability such as your min example. If you're ignoring its return or using it to call void functions that don't return anything, then that would certainly be detrimental to readability.
I personally like ternary operator syntax, but I rather use if statements because I feel its more readable. It becomes even harder when you chain ternary operators.