Question

I’m a newbie to C, I understand why ternary operators can be useful, less code than if/else blocks.

I have been given some C code to maintain, and one thing I’ve noticed is the previous programmer used ternary operators like this

myInt = (!myInt) ? MACRO1 : MACRO2;

Does this accomplish exactly the same thing as this:

myInt = myInt ? MACRO2 : MACRO1;

Is this just a style thing? Perhaps it makes sense to think “if not” myInt, instead of “if”?

Answer 1

Yes, this code accomplishes exactly the same thing. It just depends on the logic used when writing the condition – so it can be chalked up to style (i.e. whichever is easier for you to think).