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What in the IF is a ternary?

Matthew Carpenter on September 13, 2018

Being a "newb" to Javascript syntax can be a bit overwhelming at times. For starters, you can solve any single problem 10 different ways. Which mea...

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tux0r • Sep 13 '18

If you have the choice between concise and obvious code, you should choose obvious code. Elegance involves debugability.

ItsASine (Kayla) • Sep 13 '18

It's worth noting that ternaries work in setting values not executing statements.

if(something) {
  doAThing();
} else {
  doAnotherThing();
}

can't be reduced to

something ? doAThing() : doAnotherThing();

Though I do think it reads easy (even nested) so long as what you're assigning is simple.

var thing = stuff ? 42 : 'thingy';

Having longer strings is where it gets to be cleaner to just write out the if-else.

JavaScript Joel • Sep 14 '18

It's worth noting that ternaries work in setting values not executing statements.
if(something) {
  doAThing();
} else {
  doAnotherThing();
}
can't be reduced to
something ? doAThing() : doAnotherThing();

There's nothing that would prevent a ternary from executing statements. That statement is perfectly valid JavaScript.

// VALID: You can also use a ternary to execute functions!
something ? doAThing() : doAnotherThing();

ItsASine (Kayla) • Sep 14 '18

Really? I never saw that as a valid option in IntelliJ within the Jasmine/ES5 realm :o Nice!

Jonathan Irvin • Sep 13 '18

I agree with @tux0r on this one. Ternary statements are awesome for showing off fancy JS skills, but in practicality, they're very hard on the eyes.

To add to the madness, you can chain ternary statements together ad nauseum. At that point, it's less about fanciness and more about "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

To tux0r's point, if you're reading the code in your head as if condition, then expression, why not write it out as such?

Hugo Di Francesco • Sep 13 '18

Since ternaries push you to use expressions, it makes your code less about control flow (if this, do that, else do something else) and more about "given this and that, send this value back".

It's very easy to write a lot of code in the if/else that should have been written as a set of functions acting one after the other to transform the data.

Of course if you've got small functions and aren't doing much within your if/else, it'll help long term maintainability.