Conditional Operator in Java

In Java, the conditional operator, also known as the ternary operator, is a shorthand way to write an if-else statement. It takes three operands and is represented by the ? and : symbols.

The basic syntax for the conditional operator is as follows:

booleanExpression ? value1 : value2

Here, booleanExpression is the expression that evaluates to a boolean value, and value1 and value2 are the values that are returned based on whether the boolean expression is true or false. If the boolean expression is true, value1 is returned. If it is false, value2 is returned.

Here’s an example of using the conditional operator in Java:

int a = 10;
int b = 5;
int max = (a > b) ? a : b;
System.out.println("The maximum value is " + max);

In this example, the boolean expression is (a > b), which evaluates to true because 10 is greater than 5. Therefore, value1 (which is a) is returned, and the variable max is assigned the value 10. The message “The maximum value is 10” is printed to the console.

Some rules for using the conditional operator in Java include:

• The data types of value1 and value2 must be the same or compatible.
• Both value1 and value2 must be of the same type or can be promoted to a common type.
• The conditional operator can be used as an expression, which means it can be used in assignments or as an argument in a method call.
• It can also be nested, which means a conditional operator can be used as either value1 or value2 in another conditional operator.

Here’s an example of nesting the conditional operator:

int score = 75;
String result = (score >= 60) ? ((score >= 90) ? "A" : "B") : "Fail";
System.out.println("The result is " + result);

In this example, the boolean expression (score >= 60) is true because the score is 75. Therefore, the conditional operator returns value1 ((score >= 90) ? "A" : "B"), which evaluates to “B” because the score is not greater than or equal to 90. Finally, the variable result is assigned the value “B”, and the message “The result is B” is printed to the console.