"?" and ":" characters

[jez777]

Hi, I'm just learning php

I ran into a script that contains the characters "?" and ":" can someone tell me what they do in the following script? thanks.

<?php
2: $num_to_guess = 42;
3: $message = "";
4: $num_tries = ( isset( $num_tries ) ) ? ++$num_tries : 0;

[stenk]

Check out php.net manual.

http://www.php.net/language.operators

This should explain it for you. Its called a ternary operator.

Hope this helps you.

Regards,

[TheDefender]

$num_tries = ( isset( $num_tries ) ) ? ++$num_tries : 0;

Basically, it says:

If $num_tries is set, then increment $num_tries by 1 and then returns $num_tries, otherwise, set $num_tries equal to the value of 0.

Written using a standard if/else, it would look something like this:

if(isset($num_tries)) {
    $num_tries = ++$num_tries;
} else {
    $num_tries = 0;
}

[jez777]

awesome, thanks