Ternary Operator¶

ifthenternaryoperatorconditional

Definition¶

The expression (expr1) ? (expr2) : (expr3) evaluates to expr2 if expr1 does not evaluate to FALSE, and expr3 if expr1 evaluates to FALSE. Since PHP 5.3, it is possible to leave out the middle part of the ternary operator. Expression expr1 ?: expr3 (short-hand ternary) returns expr1 if expr1 evaluates to TRUE, and expr3 otherwise. • php.net

Aliases¶

• (expr1) ? (expr2) : (expr3) : conditional operator, inline if (iif), or ternary if
• expr1 ?: expr3 : Elvis operator

Usage¶

It is a shorter form of if-then-else, easily written in one line.

Examples¶

$result = $is_singular ? 'word' : 'words';      // normal ternary operator

$title = $specified_title ?: $default_title ;   // shorthand ternary operator
    // which is equivalent to 
$title = $specified_title != false ? $specified_title : $default_title    

References¶

• PHP Docs: Comparison Operators
• Shorthand comparisons in PHP

Related articles¶

• Null Coalescing operator operator ifthen conditional