Do You Code Like This? - The Answer

If you recall my last post, I posed a question like so,

System.out.println(true?false:true==true?false:true);

Anyway, this is a small Java code. If you are ensure about the notation, it is a shorthand for "if...else" statement.

The ?: notation is explained as follows,

( [boolean-expression] ? [true-part] : [false-part] )

An example of the use of the "?:" notation is as follows,

int i = 5;
System.out.println((i < 10)? true: false);

The result should print out "true".

This notation certainly saves a bit of time but it tends to make code very difficult to read.

If we return to the question I posed, if we were to rewrite that statement, we would get the following:

if (true) {
false;
} else {
if (true == true) { false; } else { true; }
}

Was this flow-control what the developer wanted to execute? I apologize for putting the next if statement in a single line but it was to differentiate the nested-if statement.

So, what is the answer?

If you were smart, you would have taken this code and pasted it in a class, compiled and executed it. (^^)

The answer was.... "false". LOL!!!! Obvious, right?

Remember that you can not have a variable named after a Java reserved keyword, so, there was no way that "true" or "false" were variables. ;)

I do advocate the use of the "?:" notation, but only when it is very clear. I would not condone using the "?:" notation when there is a big chunk of code in between each true or false parts.