When working with JavaScript, you may come across the “?” symbol being used in a particular type of expression called a ternary operation. By understanding how it works, you can write more efficient and concise code.
What is a Ternary Operation?
In JavaScript, a ternary operation is a short-hand conditional statement that allows you to make decisions based on a condition. It has the following syntax:
condition ? expression1 : expression2
The ternary operator consists of three parts:
- The condition: This is the expression that is evaluated to either true or false.
- Expression1: This is the value to be returned if the condition is true.
- Expression2: This is the value to be returned if the condition is false.
Purpose of the “?” Symbol
The “?” symbol in a ternary operation serves as a separator between the condition and the expressions. It is a way to indicate that you are using the ternary operator and allows you to combine the condition and the result in a single line.
The purpose of the “?” symbol is to evaluate the condition and return either expression1 or expression2 based on the result. If the condition is true, the value of expression1 is returned. If the condition is false, the value of expression2 is returned.
Example
Let’s take a look at an example to better understand the purpose of the “?” symbol in ternary operations:
const age = 25;
const message = age >= 18 ? "You are an adult" : "You are not an adult";
console.log(message);
In this example, the condition is age >= 18, which evaluates to true because the age variable is 25. Since the condition is true, the value of the expression before the “:” symbol is returned, which is “You are an adult”. The message variable stores this value, and it is then printed to the console.
If the age variable were, for example, 15, the condition would evaluate to false, and the value of the expression after the “:” symbol would be returned instead, which is “You are not an adult”.
Conclusion
The “?” symbol in ternary operations in JavaScript serves as a separator between the condition and the expressions. It allows you to write concise conditional statements that evaluate a condition and return different values based on the result. By utilizing ternary operations, you can make your code more readable and efficient.
#javascript #ternary-operation