Ternary operator

The ternary operator ? : is a shorthand for an if‑else statement that returns a value. It was already covered in section 3.7, but here it is presented in the context of conditional statements.

Syntax:

condition ? expressionIfTrue : expressionIfFalse

Examples:

int age = 20;
String status = (age >= 18) ? "Adult" : "Minor";

int max = (a > b) ? a : b;

System.out.println((score >= 60) ? "Pass" : "Fail");

Nested ternary (use sparingly for readability):

String grade = (score >= 90) ? "A" :
               (score >= 80) ? "B" :
               (score >= 70) ? "C" : "F";

When to use: Simple conditional assignments. For complex logic, use if‑else.

Important: Both expressions must be compatible types (or one must be assignable to the other).

double result = (x > 0) ? 10 : 2.5; // int and double → double