Question

Possible Duplicate:
Why is this code invalid in C#?
Conditional operator cannot cast implicitly?

If I do the following:

bool someBool = false;
uint value = 0;

These are fine:

value = (someBool) ? 0 : (uint)1;
value = (someBool) ? (uint)0 : 1;

But this is not:

value = (someBool) ? 0 : 1;

Why can I not use the last one when I can easily say:

value = 0;
value = 1;

How is the type of the ternary operator determined?

Answer 1

My short summary :

  var x = c ? a : b;

The compiler will try if b is convertible to the type of a, otherwise if a is convertible to the type of b. When neither is possible there is an error.

But in

 uint value = (someBool) ? 0 : 1;

the ternary operator simply return int (both a and b are ints here).

The variable on the left side of the assignment is not considered when determining the type.