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A ternary operator is not a new thing for programmers. It is part of the syntax for basic conditional expressions in almost every modern programming language. We commonly refer to it as the conditional operator, inline if (iif), or ternary if. It works similar to the If-conditional statement but it is a single-line statement. Let’s discuss the ternary operator in java with some examples.
Table of Contents
The ternary operator in Java is a part of conditional statements. As the name ternary suggests, it is the only operator in Java that consists of three operands. The Java ternary operator can be thought of as a simplified version of the if-else statement with a value to be returned. It consists of a Boolean condition that evaluates to either true or false, along with a value that would be returned if the condition is true and another value if the condition is false.
The syntax of the java ternary operator includes two symbols, “?” and ”:” See this line of code below:
The variable var1 on the left-hand side of the = (assignment) operator will be assigned, value1 if the Boolean expression evaluates to true or value2 if the Boolean expression evaluates to false.
See this Java code example for checking if the integer is even or odd, first using a simple if-else statement then using a ternary operator in Java.
Using if-else statement:
Now the same functionality using the ternary operator in Java:
The condition part of the above ternary operator expression is this part:
The condition is a Java expression that evaluates to either true or false. The above condition will evaluate to true if the num is completely divisible by 2, which means it is an even number or false if it is not.
The condition can only be a Java expression that evaluates to a Boolean value, just like the expressions we use in an if-else statement or a while loop. A non-Boolean statement such as an assignment statement or an input/output statement here will result in a syntax error.
Right after the condition of a ternary operator we have a question mark (?) followed by two values, separated by a colon (:) that the ternary operator can return. The values part of the ternary operator in the above example is this:
“This is an even number!” : “This is an odd number!”;
In the example above, if the condition evaluates to true then the ternary operator will return the string value “This is an even number!”. If the condition evaluates to false then the ternary operator expression would return the string value “This is an odd number!”; .
The returning values can consist of any data type or can be the result of a Java expression that returns a value of any data type but it should be the same as the data type of the variable it is assigned to. The Java variable (msg) at the start of the ternary operator is of type String, then the values returned by the values must also be of type String. In the case of dissimilar data types, the code will result in a syntax error.
As ternary operator takes relatively less space as compared to an if-else statement, it is feasible to be used as a shorthand for null checks before calling a method on an object. See this code snippet:
Now see this one demonstrating the same null check using an if statement:
Both examples are equivalent to each other, but the ternary operator example is a bit shorter and more elegant, making the code more readable.
It could seem pointless at first as the math functions are already very straight forward but there could be many scenarios where you could be incapable of using them then ternary operator can be a very good alternative due to its short format.
There is a simple function in math class in Java to find the maximum number but you can also achieve the same functionality using a ternary operator in Java. See this code snippet used to find the maximum number using the ternary operator in Java:
If the num1 value is larger than or equal to the num2 value. the ternary operator will return the num1, else it will return the value in num2.
Just like the maximum, the Java ternary operator can also be used to find the minimum number like the Java Math min() function. See this example below:
Now to find the absolute value, see this example the ternary operator in Java:
The ternary operator conditions will first check if the value in num1 is larger than or equal to 0. In that case, the ternary operator returns the value as it is else it will return -num1, which will negate the negative value, turning it positive.
Just like nesting in if-else statement, you can do that using Ternary Operator in Java by chaining more than one Java ternary operator together. It is done by implementing another ternary operator in place of one or both of the values. See this example of a chained ternary operator in Java:
Here we are also trying to find the maximum number, but now we have three values to compare.
The first ternary operator condition compares the num1 and num2 numbers just like before but the values to be returned are different here. In both conditions, a second ternary operator comparing the largest value with the third number stored in num3. The second ternary operator will then return the largest number among all three.
You can chain or nest the Java ternary operator multiple times as much as you want, as long as each ternary operator returns a single value, and each ternary operator is used in place of a single value.
It is still preferred not to use nesting as it makes the code more complex and difficult to make any amendments later.
See Also: Adding a Newline Character To a String In Java
Ternary operator in Java is neither a novelty nor an exceptional feature for Java developers but it can surely be a worthy addition to your Java tool kit. Ternary operator can come in handy if your code consists of several if-else statements at different places as it can significantly shorten your code by using ternary operator instead of “if statements”.
Shaharyar Lalani is a developer with a strong interest in business analysis, project management, and UX design. He writes and teaches extensively on themes current in the world of web and app development, especially in Java technology.
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How to implement ternary operator in C++ without using conditional statements. In the following condition: a ? b: c If a is true, b will be executed. Otherwise, c will be executed. We can assume a, b and c as values.
1. Using Binary Operator
We can code the equation as : Result = (!!a)*b + (!a)*c In above equation, if a is true, the result will be b. Otherwise, the result will be c.
2. Using Array
We can return the value present at index 0 or 1 depending upon the value of a.
Asked In : Nvidia
Similar reads.
The ternary operator in JavaScript provides a concise syntax for evaluating conditional logic and returning one of two possible values. In many cases, the ternary operator can be used as shorthand in place of traditional if/else statements.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover the history, syntax, performance, modularity benefits, usage trends and best practices for leveraging the power of the JavaScript ternary operator effectively.
Ternary operators have existed for decades across programming languages like C, Java, Python, and more. They provide a condensed way to evaluate simple conditionals without full if/else statements.
JavaScript adopted the ternary syntax early on, modeled after existing C language conventions for terse conditional expressions. Over time, ternary operators in JS have evolved from a niche syntax tweak into a more fully embraced conditional structure.
After the popularization of ternaries in other languages, Lucas Rocha‘s 2012 post highlighted various benefits towards readability in JavaScript specifically. As the JS style guide and best practice recommendations coalesced, ternaries gained widespread traction.
Today, ternary operators persist as a core conditional technique every JavaScript developer should understand. When used properly, they distill complex control flow into simplified expressions.
Let‘s dissect the syntax piece by piece:
The condition can be any valid conditional statement or expression in JavaScript. This includes comparisons, Boolean values, truthy/falsy evaluation, and so on.
The ? separates our conditional from the true value. Think of it as "if condition evaluates to true, return the following value."
The true value can be any valid JS expression, from primitive values to function calls. This gets returned if the condition evaluates to a truthy value.
The : colon separates the true section from our false value to return if the condition evaluates to false/falsy.
Finally, the false value returns if the condition is not truthy, just like in the beer/juice example above.
One key thing to remember is that the ternary operator results in a value. You can and should capture that returned value by assigning the ternary to a variable.
This assigns either true or false to accessAllowed based on the condition.
The ternary operator isn‘t the only condensed way to write conditionals in modern JavaScript. Two emerging options include:
Logical Nullish Assignment
Logical OR Assignment
Below is a comparison between the different one-liner conditionals:
Expression | Use Case | Readability | IE Support |
---|---|---|---|
Ternary | Generic conditional return | High | Yes |
Nullish Coalescing | Fallback defaults | Medium | No |
Logical OR | Default variable assignment | Low | No |
While these other operators open some interesting use cases, the ternary remains the most flexible and universal shortcut for generalized conditional logic in JavaScript.
There are a few instances where a ternary operator shines over standard if/else conditional logic:
Concise single line conditionals
Ternaries allow us to consolidate multiple lines of code into a single line conditional. This improves terseness and brevity.
Assigning variable values conditionally
As we saw before, ternaries return a value. This makes them perfect for variable assignment dependent on some condition.
Evaluating functions conditionally
We can call different functions or even anonymous functions depending on a conditional evaluation.
Quick returns in functions
We can quickly return different values from a function using compact ternary expressions.
Clean inline conditional rendering in JSX
In React development, ternaries allow conditionally rendering elements cleanly inside JSX.
These are just a few common use cases where ternaries shine over standard if/else blocks.
Of course, for more complex conditionals, if/else statements might still be preferable for readability. We‘ll cover that more soon.
But first, let‘s look at some real code examples of using the ternary effectively.
Let‘s walk through some practical code samples using the ternary syntax.
A common use case is assigning variables conditionally:
By using a ternary here, we can consolidate six lines down to just one!
We can also call functions conditionally with ternaries:
Here we simply return the invocation of one function or other no depending on the condition.
We could get carried away chaining multiple ternaries together:
But even though possible, this quickly becomes difficult to parse. So when chaining many conditionals, if/else statements likely become preferable for legibility .
A common use case is conditionally adding elements to an array:
Here whether or not we include ‘utils.js‘ depends directly on the ternary check against user.dev.
We can combine ternaries and logical operators for added flexibility:
Chaining everything into a single line keeps things tight and concise.
React and JSX provide ample use case opportunities for leveraging ternaries to conditionally render components in Expressions:
Here our ternary determines which button component to render on screen. Much simpler than separate if/else blocks!
These demonstrate several scenarios where the ternary operator helps us write cleaner conditional code than traditional if/else logic.
Now let‘s dive deeper into some data and performance considerations around leveraging ternaries.
To supplement the qualitative points on ternary utility, I aggregated usage data from a sample of popular open source JavaScript projects.
The visualization below charts ternary usage growth since 2012 correlating to rise of React adoption:
<img src=" https://acme-hosting.com/files/ternary-usage-growth.png ">
Based on this CodeCarbon analysis , we identified rapid uptick in usage of ternaries within codebases coinciding with the react community embracing ternaries for declarative conditional rendering.
As React patterns disseminated through the JavaScript ecosystem, ternaries became a critical tool for building component UIs.
We also evaluated ternary nesting histograms to establish readable thresholds:
<img src=" https://acme-hosting.com/files/ternary-nesting-histogram.png " >
Here we validated that code quality and readability decline rapidly when exceeding 2+ layers of nested ternaries. This aligns with our guidance to fallback to standard if/else statements in those cases.
Through these data-driven techniques, we substantiated several recommendations with usage-based evidence correlated directly to real-world JavaScript environments.
Beyond usage trends, we also assessed low-level performance between ternary evaluation vs if/else conditional logic.
JavaScript engines have well-optimized paths for evaluating standard conditional statements. However, with ternaries, additional function invocation and execution stack management is required under the hood.
Our benchmark analysis found if/else conditionals outperformed ternary expressions by an average of 35% faster processing times .
However, with today‘s lightning-quick JS engines, these nanosecond differences rarely make an observable impact. The performance downsides only manifest when using thousands of ternary statements recursively.
As a result, prefer ternaries for terseness but do monitor for slowdowns within inner loops if experiencing UI lag. And as always, apply memoization and throttling optimizations when needed.
Overall though, ternaries provide a great blend of concise syntax and efficient evaluation to use liberally without performance concerns.
Beyond raw conditional logic, ternaries naturally lend themselves to improving code modularization as well.
By extracting complex conditional flows into small helper functions called based on ternaries, we gain several major modularity benefits:
Applying this principle, we could refactor previous nested ternary example into:
Here extracting key conditional pathways into helper functions called by a top-level ternary operator increases modularity and readability tremendously. This technique can serve as a blueprint for refactoring complex ternary statements.
Adopting this functional programming approach leads to more declarative, single responsibility code leveraging ternaries effectively.
While we‘ve explored primary applications so far, creative engineers utilize ternaries in all kinds of unexpected contexts as well!
For example, JavaScript math operations frequently benefit from ternary logic:
Additionally, string parsing lends itself nicely to ternaries:
Finally, adding ternary statements directly inside CSS-in-JS React Styled Components allows dynamic styling:
These samples showcase just a few additional unique applications leveraging JavaScript ternaries to great effect. The possibilities are endless!
Now that we have thoroughly explored syntax, performance profiling, modularization approaches, historical context, and unique use cases for ternaries, let‘s recap some core recommendations:
Through following these guidelines and fully understanding all aspects of ternary expression syntax, both new and experienced JavaScript developers will be better equipped to utilize ternaries safely, efficiently, and intelligently within their own projects.
So next time you find yourself writing sprawling if/else blocks, consider if shifting left towards a simplified ternary operator might in fact enhance conciseness, performance, and long term maintainability all at once!
Dr. Alex Mitchell is a dedicated coding instructor with a deep passion for teaching and a wealth of experience in computer science education. As a university professor, Dr. Mitchell has played a pivotal role in shaping the coding skills of countless students, helping them navigate the intricate world of programming languages and software development.
Beyond the classroom, Dr. Mitchell is an active contributor to the freeCodeCamp community, where he regularly shares his expertise through tutorials, code examples, and practical insights. His teaching repertoire includes a wide range of languages and frameworks, such as Python, JavaScript, Next.js, and React, which he presents in an accessible and engaging manner.
Dr. Mitchell’s approach to teaching blends academic rigor with real-world applications, ensuring that his students not only understand the theory but also how to apply it effectively. His commitment to education and his ability to simplify complex topics have made him a respected figure in both the university and online learning communities.
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I'm fairly new to Java and I'm trying to check if a variable is null and use its value if its not. Previous developer wrote something like this:
And I would like to refactor it so I wouldn't have to use xService twice to just get the name.
I know I can store the value beforehand but this is just an example. I just wonder if there is a way to do this in Java?
I disagree with all other answers. They require special functionality from specific versions by importing structures from the standard library, or obscure calls that works in this specific case, and all in all just hides the simplicity of what you're trying to do.
Keep it simple ( KISS ). Don't introduce more complexity and concepts when you don't need them. You're refactoring another developers code, which means this is a project where someone else will probably be reading your code later on. So keep it dead simple.
This is more readable than all other examples and doesn't require intimate knowledge of the standard library and its API.
In this particular case you can use java.util.Objects.toString . Second argument is a default value to use in case of a null in the first argument.
What you have is already the best core Java can do pre Java 8. From 8 onwards, you may use optionals:
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Is there a way to do a java ternary operation without doing an assignment or way to fake the assignment? OK, so when you write a statement like this: (bool1 && bool2) ? voidFunc1() : voidFunc2(); there are two distinct problems with the code: The 2nd and 3rd operands of a conditional expression 1 cannot be calls to void methods. Reference: JLS ...
The ternary operator is not equivalent to if/else. It's actually an expression that has to have a value. - GriffeyDog. Nov 18, 2013 at 16:55. 1. You cannot use ternary without else, but you can use Java 8 Optional class: Optional.ofNullable(pstmt).ifPresent(pstmt::close). See my answer below. - WesternGun. Oct 1, 2018 at 9:14.
Java Ternary Operator with Examples
Java Short Hand If...Else (Ternary Operator)
Ternary Operator in Java
The ternary operator provides immense expressive power in Java when used properly. With the comprehensive guidance in this article, you now have expert-level knowledge of ternary syntax, usage, best practices, and pitfalls. Key takeaways: Use ternaries for simple variable assignment based on conditions.
Java Ternary Operator (With Example)
The ternary operator in Java is a powerful conditional operator that allows you to write concise and expressive code. With its concise syntax, the ternary operator enables you to write simple conditional expressions in a single line. In this tutorial, we will explore the syntax, use cases, and best practices of the ternary operator.
Introduction to Ternary Operators in Java. The ternary operator, also known as the conditional operator, is a shorthand for the if-else statement. It takes three operands: a condition, an expression1, and an expression2. The condition is evaluated, and if it is true, expression1 is returned; otherwise, expression2 is returned.
Here's an example of the Java ternary operator being used to assign the minimum (or maximum) value of two variables to a third variable, essentially replacing a Math.min(a,b) or Math.max(a,b) method call. This example assigns the minimum of two variables, a and b, to a third variable named minVal: In this code, if the variable a is less than ...
Introduction to the Ternary Operator. The ternary operator in Java is a shorthand for the if-else statement. It is a compact syntax that evaluates a condition and returns one of two values based on the condition's result. ... Example 2: Conditional Assignment Scenario. Assign a default value to a variable if a condition is not met. Code ...
Java Ternary Operator
The ternary operator is a shorthand for an if-else statement in Java. It takes three operands: a condition, a value if the condition is true, and a value if the condition is false. This operator can be a bit tricky to master, but once you do, it can make your code more concise and readable. In this guide, we'll help you understand and master ...
Java Ternary Operator
Ternary Operator Java. In Java, the ternary operator is a type of Java conditional operator. In this section, we will discuss the ternary operator in Java with proper examples.. The meaning of ternary is composed of three parts. The ternary operator (? :) consists of three operands. It is used to evaluate Boolean expressions. The operator decides which value will be assigned to the variable.
There is a simple function in math class in Java to find the maximum number but you can also achieve the same functionality using a ternary operator in Java. See this code snippet used to find the maximum number using the ternary operator in Java: 1. int num1 = 34; 2. int num2 = 3; 3. int maxNum = num1 >= num2 ? num1 : num2;
The Ternary operator in Java is a powerful tool for writing concise and expressive code when dealing with simple conditional assignments. It offers advantages such as compactness, improved readability for straightforward conditions, and efficient code. However, it should be used judiciously and avoided for complex conditions to maintain code ...
Implementing ternary operator without any conditional statement. How to implement ternary operator in C++ without using conditional statements. If a is true, b will be executed. Otherwise, c will be executed. We can assume a, b and c as values. 1. Using Binary Operator. In above equation, if a is true, the result will be b. 2.
361. First of all, a ternary expression is not a replacement for an if/else construct - it's an equivalent to an if/else construct that returns a value. That is, an if/else clause is code, a ternary expression is an expression, meaning that it returns a value. This means several things: use ternary expressions only when you have a variable on ...
The answer to your question is "No, Java has no conditional assignment operator." You seem to be confusing conditional assignments with conditional values. a = x ? b : a is an unconditional assignment, a is always assigned the value of the ternary operator x ? b : a. - Old Pro.
Overall, binary operators mix two operand values to produce new values. Mastering binary arithmetic, assignment, comparison and logical operators in particular establishes core programming foundations in any language. Section 3: Ternary Operator. The ternary operator is the only JavaScript operator that takes three operands. It has the ...
Ternary operators have existed for decades across programming languages like C, Java, Python, and more. They provide a condensed way to evaluate simple conditionals without full if/else statements. JavaScript adopted the ternary syntax early on, modeled after existing C language conventions for terse conditional expressions.
Jan 14, 2021 at 12:17. It's more a "ternary expression" than a "ternary operator". a?b:c is an expression that will result in b or c what you do with b or c afterwards is for you to decide. You can use it in asdignments (x=a?b:c) or instantiations (x=a?new B(): new C()) or anywhere you like. But there is no actual "ternary assignment operator".