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# C++ Conditional ? : Operator

The ? operator is called a conditional operator and has the following general form:

    Exp1 ? Exp2 : Exp3;

where Exp1, Exp2, and Exp3 are expressions. Notice the use and placement of the colon. The value of a ? expression is determined like this: Exp1 is evaluated. If it is true, then Exp2 is evaluated and becomes the value of the entire ? expression. If Exp1 is false, then Exp3 is evaluated and its value becomes the value of the expression.

The ? is called a ternary operator because it requires three operands and can used to replace if-else statements which has the following form:

    if(condition){
       var = X;
    }else{
       var = Y;
    }

For example, consider the following code:

    if(y < 10){
       var = 30;
    }else{
       var = 40;
    }

Above code can be rewritten like this:

    var = (y < 10) ? 30 : 40;

Here, x is assigned the value of 30 if y is less than 10 and 40 if it is not.

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