[removed] is this a conditional assignment?

Question

From the google analytics tracking code:

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

how does this work?

Is it a conditional variable value assignment? Is i

Answer 1

Yes, it is.

The || operator evaluates to its leftmost "truthy" operand.
If _gaq is "falsy" (such as null, undefined, or 0), it will evaluate to the right side ([]).