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.