Home/ Questions/Q 4576112
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-21T20:09:34+00:00

Forgive my newbie question, but what the heck does the question mark, ? mean

  • 0

Forgive my “newbie” question, but what the heck does the question mark, “?” mean in the fololowing line of code?

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.title = (editing) ?
    NSLocalizedString(@"Done", @"Done") : NSLocalizedString(@"Edit", @"Edit");
Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This is a ternary statement, the ? is the conditional operator. The statement is basically saying:

    if (editing) {
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.title = NSLocalizedString(@"Done", @"Done");
} else {
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem.title = NSLocalizedString(@"Edit", @"Edit");
}

    You could think of it like:

    ? – If previous statement is true, do code immediately after.

    : – Else / Otherwise, run the code immediately after this.

    You can read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_operation. You will find that this construct is available in many languages other than C / Objective-C.

    • 0