It is a special operator in PHP, and its symbol is the question mark ?.
The name itself shows its meaning — ternary means three parts.
It contains three parts, of which the first part is:
- Condition – This part holds the condition that decides which expression will run.
- Expression 1 → When the condition meets the expression 1, and then the condition is found to be true, then this part immediately runs and shows the result in the browser.
- Expression 2 → If the condition does not find the true, then this part runs in the browser.
It makes the ternary operator a smoother and simpler way to write conditions. It works in the same way as the if-else and is also known as the conditional operator.
Syntax:
$variable = (condition)? value_if_true : value_if_false;Example:
$age = 20;
$result = ($age >= 18) ? "Adult": "Minor";
echo $result;Output:
Adult