Can I omit the else in an inline javascript if statement?

Question

I\'m trying to use this and it doesn\'t appear to be working. I\'m guessing it\'s just not an option, but want to confirm. Is this valid?

(if_it_is) ? thats_cool         


        

Answer 1

What you are trying to use is a Ternary Operator. You are missing the else part of it.

You could do something like:

(if_it_is) ? thats_cool() : function(){};

or

(if_it_is) ? thats_cool() : null;

Or, as others have suggested, you can avoid the ternary if you don't care about the else.

if_it_is && thats_cool();

In JavaScript, as well as most languages, these logical checks step from left to right. So it will first see if if_it_is is a 'trusy' value (true, 1, a string other than '', et cetera). If that doesn't pass then it doesn't do the rest of the statement. If it does pass then it will execute thats_cool as the next check in the logic.

Think of it as the part inside of an if statement. Without the if. So it's kind of a shorthand of

if (if_it_is && thats_cool()) { }