? and : in PHP

[Naez]

(($val) ? ucwords(str_replace('_', ' ', $val)) : ' ')

 

Could someone explain to me the function of a ? and : in PHP, or perhaps direct me to the page about it on PHP.net site.  I'm having trouble finding out.

[fert]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%3F:

[Baabu]

Well this is called ternary opreator works like If then else

 

consider this

 

<?php

 

( $a>=$b ) ? echo"$a is greater then $b " : echo "$a is less then b";

?>

 

well before "?" anycondition is placed which could be either true or false if the condition is true then it will come to the immediate next part mean after "?" and if false then it will go to ":" part hope this makes clear

Cheers

[Naez]

Ah, so it is used to simplify small if-else statements.  that's pretty neat (and handy)

[aschk]

Yes it's pretty much an if/else with assignment.

 

It is handy, but sometimes confusing for other developers to read

[svivian]

It's very useful for printing stuff. Baabu's code can be rewritten as:

echo ( $a >= $b ) ? "$a is greater then $b " : "$a is less then b";

 

Tip: don't ever nest ternary operators, it gets way too confusing to read. And try to keep everything simple - if you're outputting long strings use if/else instead.