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I’ve always been fond of the conditional operator in C, which is essentially a terse way to write an if/else statement. Given this operator works with three operands, it is often fondly referred to as the ternary operator.
The conditional looks as follow:
condition-test ? first-expression : second-expression
If the condition-test is nonzero, the first-expression is evaluated, otherwise the second-expression is evaluated.
// Traditional approach
if (x > 0)
str = @"positive";
else
str = @"negative";
// Conditional operator
str = x > 0 ? @"positive" : @"negative";
Nesting Conditional Operators
Extending the example above, we can update the code for the case where x is neither positive or negative (x is zero), using nested conditionals:
// Traditional approach
if (x > 0)
str = @"positive";
else if (x < 0)
str = @"negative";
else
str = @"zero";
// Conditional operator
str = x > 0 ? @"positive" : x < 0 ? @"negative" : @"zero";
As shown above, based on the association of parameters, no parenthesis are necessary, however, I find this much easier to read:
str = x > 0 ? @"positive" : (x < 0 ? @"negative" : @"zero");
Good Use Case
I find the conditional operator useful when creating messages in which part of the message may be plural or singular depending on the value of a variable.
It’s not much more work to make messages appear as expected, for example, how often have you seen a message from an application that looks similar to this “1 file(s) downloaded” where ideally the message would read “1 file downloaded” – not a big deal, however, it’s a trivial amount of code to get this right:
int x = 1;
NSString *str =
[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d file%s downloaded", x, (x > 1 ? "s" : "")];
Sometimes it’s the little things that will setup you apart in a crowd of developers.
Comments
4 Responses to “C Conditional Operator aka Ternary Operator”
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I like the ternary operator for two reasons. First, it’s a good way to do conditional assignment on the same line as the definition of the variable that gets the result. Second, it’s a good way to cut down on curly brackets, as an alternative to the horrid practice of nesting a single conditional line below the condition without brackets. The one drawback is the increased difficulty of inserting breakpoints on the individual conditions.
Love this operator as well! It’s in fact the only operator with three operands (hence the name :-). Some might argue that they don’t use it for code-readability’s sake but if you know what the operator does you can figure out the code just as quick as an if-else expression. I wouldn’t nest them however.
Regards,
Steff
Nice post! Filing as “ternary refresher”.
It’s a favorite of mine too, and I often use it for more complicated assignments that would otherwise require multiple if-else expressions. I prefer this layout for easy reading:
str = x > 0 ? @”positive”
: x < 0 ? @"negative"
: @"zero";