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I just saw this block of code on the Wikipedia article on conditional operators:
Vehicle new_vehicle = arg == 'B' ? bus :
arg == 'A' ? airplane :
arg == 'T' ? train :
arg == 'C' ? car :
arg == 'H' ? horse :
feet;
I've changed the code a little, but the idea is the same. Would you find this use of the conditional operator acceptable? It's much more concise than the if-else construct, and using a switch would definitely open up a whole new set of opportunities for bugs (fall-throughs anyone?). Also, if-elses and switch can't be used as R-values, so you'd have to create the variable first, initialize it and then assign as necessary.
I for one really like this, but I'm wondering what others think.
But the formatting is essential.
EDIT: I still like this. But I understand those who say "the switch statement was made for this". OK, maybe so. But what if the conditions are function calls that return bool? Or a million other things you can't switch on.
Are you switch lovers really trying to convince me that a huge if-else chain is better? Yes, programmers who don't know how to use the conditional operator will not understand this. They should learn how to use it. It's not arcane.
886
The conditional operator can be used in the case of an if-else statement if the if-else statement only has one statement to execute. The conditional operator reduces the number of lines of code in a program. The conditional operator is a single programming statement and can only perform one operation.
The conditional operator is kind of similar to the if-else statement as it does follow the same algorithm as of if-else statement but the conditional operator takes less space and helps to write the if-else statements in the shortest way possible.
But what if we are to use multiple if-else statements? Such issues can be tackled using multiple ternary operators in a single statement. In the above syntax, we have tested 2 conditions in a single statement using the ternary operator.
The conditional (ternary) operator is the only JavaScript operator that takes three operands: a condition followed by a question mark ( ? ), then an expression to execute if the condition is truthy followed by a colon ( : ), and finally the expression to execute if the condition is falsy.
I have used this type of construction many times. As long as it's formatted nicely (i.e. not all on one line, making it unreadable), I don't see a problem with it.
176
I would use a switch, because this is the kind of thing it was designed for. Yes, there is a risk of fall-through bugs, but this nested-conditional block has a much higher risk of being misunderstood by other programmers.
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