How Does the Conditional (Ternary) Operator Work in C ?

Conditional Operator in C : the Mysterious Question Mark

In C , the question mark (?) holds a significant meaning, particularly in conditional statements. Consider the following code snippet:

int qempty()
{
    return (f == r ? 1 : 0);
}

In this code, the question mark is an essential component of the conditional operator, which allows for concise evaluation of conditional statements. It follows the syntax:

condition ? result_if_true : result_if_false

where:

• condition is the boolean expression that determines whether to execute the statement.
• result_if_true is the value or code to be executed if condition evaluates to true.
• result_if_false is the value or code to be executed if condition evaluates to false.

In the provided code snippet, the question mark and colon are used to evaluate if f and r are equal (i.e., the queue is empty). If f and r are equal, the expression returns 1, indicating the queue is empty; otherwise, it returns 0, indicating a non-empty queue.

Syntactically, the conditional operator is equivalent to using an if-else statement:

int qempty()
{ 
  if(f == r)
  {
      return 1;
  } 
  else 
  {
      return 0;
  }
}

However, the conditional operator provides a compact way to write conditional statements, especially when dealing with simple conditions like the one in the code snippet.

It's important to note that in some contexts, the conditional operator ?: is referred to as "the ternary operator" due to its ability to take three arguments: the condition and the two possible results.

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