Question

Is there a short syntax for avoiding passing a nil NSString?

I want to avoid doing this:

if(!str)
   str = @"";
[obj someFunc:str];

Here’s what I’d like to do:

[obj someFunc:(str || @"")]

But Objective-C won’t allow it.

Answer 1

The C-way to do in-line conditional expressions is:

[obj someFunc:(str ? str : @"")];

It’s known colloquially as the “ternary operator” (the C standard calls it the “conditional operator”). It is used as:

condition ? true-expression : false-expression

If the condition is non-zero, the true-expression is evaluated as the result of the operator, otherwise the false-expression is evaluated as the result.