C Ternary Operator (?)

The ternary operator, also known as the conditional operators in the C language can be used for statements of the form if-then-else.

The basic syntax for using ternary operator is:

(Expression1)? Expression2 : Expression3;

Here is how it works:

• The question mark ? in the syntax represents the if part.
• The first expression (expression 1) returns either true or false, based on which it is decided whether (expression 2) will be executed or (expression 3)
• If (expression 1) returns true then the (expression 2) is executed.
• If (expression 1) returns false then the expression on the right side of : i.e (expression 3) is executed.

Example: Using Ternary Operator

Here is a code example to show how to use ternary operator.

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {

   int a = 20, b = 20, result;

   /* Using ternary operator
      - If a == b then store a+b in result
      - otherwise store a-b in result
   */
   result = (a==b)?(a+b):(a-b);

   printf("result = %d",result);

   return 0;

}

Output

result = 40