Ternary Operator – JAVA [duplicate]

Well, the ternary operator in Java acts like this…

return_value = (true-false condition) ? (if true expression) : (if false expression);

…Another way of looking at it…

return_value = (true-false condition) 
             ? (if true expression) 
             : (if false expression);

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You question is kind of vague and we have to assume here.

• If (and only if) callFunction(...) declares a non-void return value (Object, String, int, double, etc..) – it seems like it does not do that via your code – then you could do this…

  return_value = (string != null) 
               ? (callFunction(...)) 
               : (null);
  

• If callFunction(...) does not return a value, then you cannot use the ternary operator! Simple as that. You will be using something that you don’t need.

  • Please post more code to clear up any issues

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Nonetheless, ternary operator should represent alternative assignments only!! Your code does not seem to do that, so you should not be doing that.

This is how they should work…

if (obj != null) {            // If-else statement

    retVal = obj.getValue();  // One alternative assignment for retVal

} else {

    retVal = "";              // Second alternative assignment for retVale

}

This can be converted to…

retVal = (obj != null)
       ? (obj.getValue())
       : ("");

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Since it seems like you might be trying to just refactor this code to be a one-liner, I have added the following

Also, if your false-clause is truely empty, then you can do this…

if (string != null) {

    callFunction(...);

} // Take note that there is not false clause because it isn't needed

OR

if (string != null) callFunction(...);  // One-liner