Ternary Operators

General Programming → Programming Tips Tricks → Tertiary Operators

A ternary operation will look something like this:

value = ( /*boolean statement*/ ) ? ( /*value if statement is true*/ ) : ( /*value if statement is false*/ );

So in a real world example:

motor[port2] = abs(vexRT[Ch2]) > 10 ? vexRT[Ch2] : 0;

In contrast to this, the if else statement would look like this:

if(abs(vexRT[Ch2]) > 10)){ motor[port2] = vexRT[Ch2]; }else{ motor[port2] = 0; }

You can also nest ternary statements. For example, if you wanted to say: move the motor forward at the value of the joystick if it is positive and above the threshold value, but move the motor backward at 1/2 joystick value of it is negative and below the threshold value, then you can nest the ternary statements to make a if else if else statement.

motor[port2] = vexRT[Ch2] > 10 ? vexRT[Ch2] : vexRT[Ch2 < -10 ? (vexRT[Ch2] / 2) : 0;

This tip was posted by magicode over at http://www.vexforum.com/showpost.php?p=220747&postcount=2.