The conditional operator, also known as the ternary operator, is a shorthand way to write an if-else statement in Java. It has the following syntax:
condition ? expression1 : expression2
Here, condition is a boolean expression, expression1 is the value to be returned if condition is true, and expression2 is the value to be returned if condition is false. The conditional operator is often used in place of an if-else statement when the conditions are simple and the code needs to be concise.
Let’s see an example that demonstrates the use of the conditional operator:
public class ConditionalOperatorDemo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int a = 10;
int b = 5;
int max = (a > b) ? a : b;
System.out.println("The maximum value is: " + max);
}
}In this example, we have two variables a and b that store integer values. We use the conditional operator to assign the maximum value of a and b to a new variable max. The condition a > b checks if a is greater than b. If it is true, the value of a is returned as the result of the conditional operator. If it is false, the value of b is returned as the result.
When we run this program, it will output the maximum value of a and b, which is 10.
The maximum value is: 10
This example demonstrates how the conditional operator can be used to write concise code that replaces an if-else statement in some cases. It is important to note that the conditional operator should be used sparingly and only when it makes the code easier to read and understand.