question about a certain format?

[yazakib]

I haven't programmed in PHP in awhile, and i probably just never have seen anyone format something in this way, but I was just curious about it.  I was looking around to find scripts/tutorials for making a dynamic calendar (go back and forth between months as well as post events to the calendar)

 

and it starts out by defining the month and year variables like this

 

    $m = (!$m) ? date("m",mktime()) : "$m";

    $y = (!$y) ? date("Y",mktime()) : "$y";

 

i've never seen that before so i'm baffled can someone enlighten me?  I understand the date("y", mktime()) function, i just dont know what the first part and the last part are for the \"(!$y) ?\" and \": "$y"\"

 

they also go on to use it again at the end when creating the heading for the calendar

<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>?m=<?=(($m-1)<1) ? 12 : $m-1 ?>&y=<?=(($m-1)<1) ? $y-1 : $y ?>

 

and i just dont understand.  I know that it creates a link to the next month, and the ?m&y represent the month and year in the link, but what is all the rest?

 

any help would be great

 

-brodie

 

[DarkWater]

It's the ternary operator, which in my opinion is quite sloppy.  It follows this format:

 

(condition) ? TRUE : FALSE;

 

If the condition is true, the TRUE statement is executed, otherwise the FALSE one is.

[yazakib]

awesome thank you so much.  Ya i agree... it was really... blah. I actually just broke it down into a "if" function to try and figure out what it was... haha... oh well. thanks so much for the explanation though, really appreciate it.

[DarkWater]

No problem.

[.josh]

what? ternary is the bomb diggity yo I <3 ternary

[DarkWater]

I use it once in a while, but not too much. >_<

[.josh]

well I mean, I only use it when I have to but when I do I'm like "yay ternary ftw!" I even stand up and do the wave.

[DarkWater]

The one-man wave is weaksauce though.  And I just rename a file to FAIL if I see a nested ternary anywhere in it.

 

$var = ($foo == 1) ? (($bar == 3) ?  "lol" : "rofl") : "this sucks";

 

xD

[.josh]

Okay well I would certainly never do a nested ternary like that.

 

Also, one-man wave I think not! I have many imaginary friends.  It helps if I've been drinking...