Code help from man Example 17-8

[fluidsharp]

Hello!

Please tell what does it mean, and how it works:  $device = is_null($coffeeMaker) ? "hands" : $coffeeMaker;

What do mean "?" and ":" there? It is regular expression?

 

 

<?php

function makecoffee($types = array("cappuccino"), $coffeeMaker = NULL)

{

    $device = is_null($coffeeMaker) ? "hands" : $coffeeMaker;

    return "Making a cup of ".join(", ", $types)." with $device.\n";

}

echo makecoffee();

echo makecoffee(array("cappuccino", "lavazza"), "teapot");

?>

[p2grace]

That syntax is called shorthand or ternary if/else statements.

 

Explanation: http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/76

 

Basically it's saying set $device equal to "hands" if $coffeeMaker is null, otherwise set it to the value of $coffeeMaker.

[trq]

Take a look at the ternary operator. Its basically a small if statement that is equivalent to....

 

if (is_null($coffeeMaker)) {
  $device = "hands";
} else {
  $device = $coffeeMaker;
}

[fluidsharp]

Thanks!