The ternary (conditional) operator in C

Question

What is the need for the conditional operator? Functionally it is redundant, since it implements an if-else construct. If the conditional operator is more efficient than the equivalent if-else assignment, why can't if-else be interpreted more efficiently by the compiler?

Answer 1

The ternary operator is a syntactic and readability convenience, not a performance shortcut. People are split on the merits of it for conditionals of varying complexity, but for short conditions, it can be useful to have a one-line expression.

Answer 2

Compactness and the ability to inline an if-then-else construct into an expression.

Answer 3

It's syntatic sugar and a handy shorthand for brief if/else blocks that only contain one statement. Functionally, both constructs should perform identically.

Answer 4

There are a lot of things in C that aren't technically needed because they can be more or less easily implemented in terms of other things. Here is an incomplete list:

1. while
2. for
3. functions
4. structs

Imagine what your code would look like without these and you may find your answer. The ternary operator is a form of "syntactic sugar" that if used with care and skill makes writing and understanding code easier.

Answer 5

In C, the real utility of it is that it's an expression instead of a statement; that is, you can have it on the RHS of a statement. So you can write certain things more concisely.

Answer 6

ternary = simple form of if-else. It is available mostly for readability.

Answer 7

Sometimes the ternary operator is the best way to get the job done. In particular when you want the result of the ternary to be an l-value.

This is not a good example, but I'm drawing a blank on somethign better. One thing is certian, it is not often when you really need to use the ternary, although I still use it quite a bit.

const char* appTitle  = amDebugging ? "DEBUG App 1.0" : "App v 1.0";

One thing I would warn against though is stringing ternaries together. They become a real
problem at maintennance time:

int myVal = aIsTrue ? aVal : bIsTrue ? bVal : cIsTrue ? cVal : dVal;

EDIT: Here's a potentially better example. You can use the ternary operator to assign references & const values where you would otherwise need to write a function to handle it:

int getMyValue()
{
  if( myCondition )
    return 42;
  else
    return 314;
}

const int myValue = getMyValue();

...could become:

const int myValue = myCondition ? 42 : 314;

Which is better is a debatable question that I will choose not to debate.

Answer 8

It's crucial for code obfuscation, like this:

Look->       See?!

No
:(
Oh, well
);

Answer 9

Some of the other answers given are great. But I am surprised that no one mentioned that it can be used to help enforce const correctness in a compact way.

Basically something like this:

const int n = (x != 0) ? 10 : 20;

so basically n is a const whose initial value is dependent on a condition statement. The easiest alternative is to make n not a const, this would allow an ordinary if to initialize it. But if you want it to be const, it cannot be done with an ordinary if. The best substitute you could make would be to use a helper function like this:

int f(int x) {
    if(x != 0) { return 10; } else { return 20; }
}

const int n = f(x);

but the ternary if version is far more compact and arguably more readable.

Answer 10

Since no one has mentioned this yet, about the only way to get smart printf statements is to use the ternary operator:

printf("%d item%s", count, count > 1 ? "s\n" : "\n");

Caveat: There are some differences in operator precedence when you move from C to C++ and may be surprised by the subtle bug(s) that arise thereof.

Answer 11

The fact that the ternary operator is an expression, not a statement, allows it to be used in macro expansions for function-like macros that are used as part of an expression. Const may not have been part of original C, but the macro pre-processor goes way back.

One place where I've seen it used is in an array package that used macros for bound-checked array accesses. The syntax for a checked reference was something like aref(arrayname, type, index), where arrayname was actually a pointer to a struct that included the array bounds and an unsigned char array for the data, type was the actual type of the data, and index was the index. The expansion of this was quite hairy (and I'm not going to do it from memory), but it used some ternary operators to do the bound checking.

You can't do this as a function call in C because of the need for polymorphism of the returned object. So a macro was needed to do the type casting in the expression. In C++ you could do this as a templated overloaded function call (probably for operator[]), but C doesn't have such features.

Answer 12

Real programmers use the ternary operator.

Answer 13

The same as

if(0)
do();


if(0)
{
do();
}

Answer 14

In some programming languages, if-else is an expression and evaluates to a value

def correct = true;
def answer = if (correct) "Yes" else "No";

so that there is no need for a conditional expression.