Question

That the code snippet

if (addMore) {
    y = x + moreValue;
} else {
    y = x;
}

can be compressed into:

y = (addMore ? x + moreValue : x);

Is familiar to most programmers with a some experience with Java.
But I was wondering if more than two states can be compressed into one line, eg:

if (addMore) {
    y = x + moreValue;
} else if (50 < x) {
    y = 50;
} else {
    y = x;
}

How can this (if possible that is) be compressed into one statement, something like:

y = (addMore ? x + moreValue {SOMETHING IN HERE} : x);

Answer 1

I use such a construct regurarly, it is reminiscent of Clojure’s cond:

y = 
  addMore ? x + moreValue :
  50 < x  ? 50            :
            x;

I find no issues with readabiility, quite to the contrary. I like that I can be sure this whole construct is about assigning a value to y. That is not at all obvious with the classic if-else if combination.