JavaScript Ternary Operators

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Ternary operators allow us to really quickly write shorter **if** statements

Here's a quick example:

// chris is level 100 cool
// everyone else is level 999
const howCoolAmI = (name === 'chris' ?) 100 : 999;

Let's take a deeper look at how we can rewrite a simple if statement with and without a ternary operator:

Without a ternary operator

// if statement without a ternary operator
let skillLevel;

if (name === 'chris') {
  skillLevel = 5;
} else {
  skillLevel = 10;
}

With a ternary operator

We can rewrite the above with a ternary operator like so:

let skillLevel = name === 'chris' ? 5 : 10;

• To use a ternary we will put the if statement on the left of the **?**.
• The first part after the ? will be what is returned if true.
• The second part after the : will be what is returned if false.

Interactive Example of a Ternary Operator

Here we have a CodePen similar to the earlier examples. Feel free to play around with this and see how we can use JavaScript ternary operators.

A Note About Naming

Ternary operators are just an operator that accepts 3 parts. What we've used throughout this article is just a conditional operator with 3 parts and that's why it's often referred to as the ternary operator. This is fine since JavaScript has only one operator that accepts 3 operands.