PHP ternary operator

The ternary operator is another conditional operator, but it is worth putting it separately. It performs a similar action to if else.

(expr1) ? (expr2) : (expr3)

Note that all are expressions, both expr1, expr2, and expr3. With the ternary operator, if expression 1 is true, expression 2 will be evaluated; otherwise, expression 3 will be evaluated.

The best way to understand the operator is through examples. For example, in the following code, I check if the message arrives:

<?php
$message=("hello")?"yes":"no";
echo $message;
?>

yes

Nesting

A question we may ask ourselves about this operator is whether nesting can be done inside it, in other words, if we can put a ternary operator inside another one. The answer is yes, it is an expression, and therefore, we can put it inside any place where an expression is expected.

<?php
$stock = 0;
$b=("no-stock")?($stock==0)?"no stock":"not-defined":"not-price";
echo $b;
?>

no stock

Elvis operator

You may also see this operator as follows, the name of the Elvis operator comes from the fact that the operator looks like Elvis Presley’s hair:

(expr1) ?: (expr3)

This expression is equivalent to writing (expr1) ? (expr1) : (expr3).

<?php
$b=("no-stock")?:"not-price";
echo $b;
?>

no-stock