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Can you use the conditional operator with functions that return values?
Can the conditional operator be used inside function calls?
Can the conditional operator be used for multiple conditions?
In C, the real utility of it is that it's an expression instead of a statement; that is, you can have it on the right-hand side (RHS) of a statement. So you can write certain things more concisely.
Some of the other answers given are great. But I am surprised that no one mentioned that it can be used to help enforce const correctness in a compact way.
Something like this:
const int n = (x != 0) ? 10 : 20;
so basically n is a const whose initial value is dependent on a condition statement. The easiest alternative is to make n not a const, this would allow an ordinary if to initialize it. But if you want it to be const, it cannot be done with an ordinary if. The best substitute you could make would be to use a helper function like this:
int f(int x) {
if(x != 0) { return 10; } else { return 20; }
}
const int n = f(x);
but the ternary if version is far more compact and arguably more readable.