Ternary Operator

👨‍💼 Sometimes you need to choose between two values based on a condition. The if/else statement works, but it's verbose when you just need a simple choice.

The ternary operator is a concise way to choose between two values:

const result = condition ? valueIfTrue : valueIfFalse

It's called "ternary" because it has three parts:

The condition to check
The value if the condition is true (after ?)
The value if the condition is false (after :)

Compare these equivalent approaches:

// Using if/else (5 lines)
let status: string
if (age >= 18) {
	status = 'adult'
} else {
	status = 'minor'
}

// Using ternary (1 line)
const status = age >= 18 ? 'adult' : 'minor'

🐨 Open

index.ts

and use the ternary operator to:

Create weatherDescription - "hot" if temperature > 30, otherwise "comfortable"
Create passed - true if score >= 70, otherwise false
Create stockMessage - "In stock" if stock > 0, otherwise "Out of stock"

The ternary operator is an expression that produces a value, while if/else is a statement that executes code. This means you can use ternaries anywhere you need a value—in variable assignments, function arguments, or template literals.

📜 MDN - Conditional (ternary) operator

04. Control Flow/05. Ternary Operator (💪 problem)

Ternary Operator