freeCodeCamp/guide/english/csharp/ternary-operator/index.md

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Ternary operator

Ternary operator (?:)

The ternary operator returns one of the two expressions based on a condition. It can be used as a shortcut for if...else statement.

Syntax

condition_expression ? expression_1 : expression_2

Parameter

condition_expression Boolean expression.

expression_1 Returned if condition_expression is true.

expression_2 Returned if condition_expression is false.

Example

// initialize - set true or false here to view different result
bool hasFreeSweet = false;

string str = hasFreeSweet ? "Free sweet!" : "No free sweet.";

//output in console
Console.WriteLine(str);

Output

if hasFreeSweet == true
> Free sweet!

if hasFreeSweet == false
> No free sweet.

Complex Ternary Operations

Ternary operations can also be embedded inside each other to create one line of execution rather than several lines. It is important to take into account that this may affect the readability of your code.

To embed more ternary operations within another ternary operation, you only have to follow the same pattern as above with each new ternary operation added. You will start with a primary ternary operation, which will consequently lead to your other ternary operations based on boolean expressions. You can branch each ternary operation based off of the true and/or false paths of the ternary operations, but we are going to focus on going off the false path for the ternary operation for the example code below, as most complicated ternary operations will be embedded in the false path.

Let's say we have a result myResult that is an int and can be 0, 1, or greater than 1. And we would like to output "Just Starting" if myResult is 0, "First Place" if myResult is 1, and "If you're not first, you're last." if myResult is 2 or greater. So, we need 3 outcomes for this ternary operation.

Example

//Initialize myResult with a 4
int myResult = 4;

//Output to the console the results of having a 4 in myResult based on what is expected.
//The extra parenthesis after "Just Starting" is for grouping 
//and is not necessary for the code to execute as expected
Console.WriteLine((myResult == 0)  ? "Just Starting" : 
	//second ternary operation which is a part of the first operation (when myResult is not equal to 0)
	((myResult == 1) ? "First Place" : 
	//the last part of the last ternary operation (when myResult is not equal to 1)
  "If you're not first, you're last."));

//Output:
>If you're not first, you're last.

You can continue this pattern to embed as many ternary operations as you wish, although it is not recommended to use more than a couple ternary operations in your code as it will drastically reduce the readability if you need to have someone else read it, contribute to it, etc.