What is the order of execution in ternary operations in JavaScript?

In JavaScript, the ternary operator (also known as the conditional operator) allows you to write shorter and more concise code for conditional statements. It provides a compact way to evaluate a condition and choose between two expressions based on that condition. The syntax of a ternary operator is as follows:

(condition ? expression1 : expression2)

The order of execution in a ternary operation in JavaScript is from left to right. This means that the condition is evaluated first, followed by the respective expression based on the outcome of the condition.

Let’s take a look at an example:

const number = 5;
const result = (number > 0 ? "Positive Number" : "Negative Number");
console.log(result);

In this example, the condition (number > 0) is evaluated first. If the condition is true (in this case, number is greater than 0), the expression “Positive Number” will be assigned to the variable result. If the condition is false, the expression “Negative Number” will be assigned.

Thus, in this particular case, since number is 5 which is greater than 0, the output will be:

Positive Number

It’s important to note that although the order of execution is from left to right, the expressions expression1 and expression2 are not evaluated until the condition is determined. This means that only one of the expressions will be executed based on the boolean value of the condition.

Understanding the order of execution in ternary operations helps in writing clean and concise code while ensuring the correct logic flow.

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