Question

I need to edit a function, but I cant figure out what the ? and the : false mean in the return statement. I think the : is an OR but the ? I dont know.

public function hasPermission($name)
{
return $this->getVjGuardADUser() ? $this->getVjGuardADUser()->hasPermission($name) : false;
}

Anyone that can clear this up for me?

Answer 1

It is PHP’s Ternary Operator. It’s like a shorthand for if/else expressions.

Your expanded code could look like so:

public function hasPermission($name)
{ 
    if ($this->getVjGuardADUser()) {
        return $this->getVjGuardADUser()->hasPermission($name)
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

Some sample-code from php.net:

// Example usage for: Ternary Operator
$action = (empty($_POST['action'])) ? 'default' : $_POST['action'];

// The above is identical to this if/else statement
if (empty($_POST['action'])) {
    $action = 'default';
} else {
    $action = $_POST['action'];
}