?: (conditional) / Reference / Processing.org

Name

?: (conditional)

Description

A shortcut for writing an if and else structure. The conditional operator, ?: is sometimes called the ternary operator, an operator that takes three arguments. If the test evaluates to true, expression1 is evaluated and returned. If the condition evaluates to false, expression2 is evaluated and returned.

The following conditional expression:

result = test ? expression1 : expression2

is equivalent to this structure:

if (test) {

  result = expression1 

} else { 

  result = expression2 
 }

Examples

int s = 0;
for (int i = 5; i < 100; i += 5) {
  s = (i < 50) ? 0 : 255;
  stroke(s);
  line(30, i, 80, i);
}

Syntax

test ? expression1 : expression2

Parameters

testany valid expression which evaluates to true or false
expression1any valid expression
expression2any valid expression

Return

Variable, dependent on the datatype of the expressions

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