--- title: Conditional Operator --- ## Conditional Operator Conditional operator is a ternary operator, that is it needs 3 operands. It returns one of two values depending on the result of an expression Conditional operator is used to replace a simple if-else statements. Syntax : ```cpp (condition)?(expression-1):(expression-2); ``` Here, expression-1 is evaluated when condition is true and expression-2 is evaluated when condtion is false. Similar if-else statement would be : ```cpp if(condition) { expression-1; } else { expression-2; } ``` Hence conditional operator is very handy when you need to write simple if-else statement. It can also be used in #define preprocessor when similar condition is to be used in multiple places. For example, to find maximum of two number conditional operator can be used as follows : ```cpp #define big(a,b) (a>=b)?a:b int maximum,x=5,y=6; // variable to store maximum of two numbers maximum=(x>y)?x:y; // directly using conditional operator maximum=big(x,y); // using the #define preprocessor defined above as big ``` **Good Luck to all of you** **Happy Coding ! :)** **Feel free to ask any queries on FreeCodeCamp's GitHub page or [FreeCodeCamp's Forum .](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/)**