Question

Is there anything wrong with using ternary operators in place of longer conditional statements in Javascript, for instance using:

(variable == "dog") ? dog_stuff() : false;

Rather than

if ( variable == "dog" ) 
{
    dog_stuff();
}

This may sound like a stupid question but I just find it’s pretty quick and easy to read, I just don’t want to be using it if there’s a possible drawback?

Answer 1

You could also write

(variable == 'dog') && dog_stuff();

if you don’t have an else statement.

A few lines from backbone.js:

  options || (options = {});
  models = _.isArray(models) ? models.slice() : [models];
  model = this.getByCid(models[i]) || this.get(models[i]);

You can group multiple statements, if it’s very necessary:

(1==1) && (a=2,b=3)
alert(a); // 2
alert(b); // 3