[RESOLVED] question about ternary operator

[yozloy]

if the following two types of code mean the same:

code 1:

if ($a>$b) {
  echo "A is greater than B";
}
else{
 echo "A is not greater than B";
}

code 2:

echo ($a>$b) ? "A is greater than B" : " A is not greater than B";

why can't I coding like this:

echo if ($a>$b) {
"A is greater than B"
}else{
"A is not greater than B"
}

or
($a>$b) ? echo "A is greater than B" : echo "A is not greater than B"

seems like a silly question, But I still can't figure it out
Thanks

[johanafm]

echo if does not work because an if statement does not return a result of some type, which the ternary operator does, and echo requires a type which is castable to string.

The ternary operator does not work with (cond) ? echo ... : echo ...; because echo does not return a value. However, print does, which means you could do

$a > $b ? print $a : print $b;

Still, I feel it's a strange construct to use. Print returns 1 always, which means that wether $a or $b is greater than the other, the return value will be 1. But, if you instead do

print ($a > $b ? $a : $b);

The return value of the ?: operator will differ according to the condition used (while the return value of the statement will still be 1)

[yozloy]

Thanks Johanafm again
great explanation!