02 Lottery Ternary

 

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Ternary Operator

JavaScript also provides a way to shorten simple if/else statements called the ternary operator.

 

let isNightTime = true;

 

if (isNightTime) {

  console.log(‘Turn on the lights!’);

} else {

  console.log(‘Turn off the lights!’);

}

In the example above, we see a very familiar pattern. See the example below for an equivalent way to express this.

isNightTime ? 

console.log(‘Turn on the lights!’) 

: console.log(‘Turn off the lights!’);

The code in the example above will operate exactly as the code from the previous example. Let’s break this example into its parts:

• isNightTime ? — the conditional statement followed by a question mark. This checks if isNightTime is truthy.
• console.log (‘Turn on the lights!’) — this code will be executed if the condition is truthy.
• : — a colon separates the two different blocks of code that can be executed.
• console.log(‘Turn off the lights!’); — this code will be executed if the condition is falsy

In this example, we checked if the value of a variable was true or false. The ternary operator can be used for any condition that can be evaluated to true or false, such as those with comparison operators.

age >= 16 ? 

console.log(‘You are old enough to drive in the United States!’) 

: console.log(‘You are not old enough to drive in the United States!’);

In the example above, the conditional statement is checking whether the value of the variable age is greater than or equal to 16. If so, a message that states the user is old enough to drive will be logged to the console. Otherwise, a message that states the user is not old enough to drive will be logged.

The ternary operator (?) and a colon (:) allow us to refactor simple if/else statements.