Troubleshooting "Unexpected T_ECHO" in ternary operator statement

Question

($DAO->get_num_rows() == 1) ? echo("is") : echo("are");

This dose not seem to be working for me as intended, I get an error "Unexpected T_ECHO". I am expecting it to echo either 'is' or 'are'.

I have tried it without the brackets around the conditional. Am I just not able to use a ternary operator in this way?

The $DAO->get_num_rows() returns an integer value.

Answer 1

The Ternary operator is not identical to an if-then. You should have written it

echo ($DAO->get_num_rows() == 1) ? "is" : "are";

It returns the value in the 2nd or 3rd position. It does NOT execute the statement in the 2nd or 3rd position.

Answer 2

The ternary operator should result in a value -- and not echo it.

Here, you probably want this :

echo ($DAO->get_num_rows() == 1) ? "is" : "are";

If you want to use two echo, you'll have to work with an if/else block :

if ($DAO->get_num_rows() == 1) {
    echo "is";
} else {
    echo "are"
}

Which will do the same thing as the first portion of code using the ternary operator -- except it's a bit longer.

Answer 3

The ternary operator returns one of two values after evaluating the conditions. It is not supposed to be used the way you are using it.

This should work:

echo ($DAO->get_num_rows() == 1 ? "is" : "are");