Is the ternary operator faster than an “if” condition in Java [duplicate]

Answer 1

Ternary Operator example:

int a = (i == 0) ? 10 : 5;

You can't do assignment with if/else like this:

// invalid:
int a = if (i == 0) 10; else 5;

This is a good reason to use the ternary operator. If you don't have an assignment:

(i == 0) ? foo () : bar ();

an if/else isn't that much more code:

if (i == 0) foo (); else bar ();

In performance critical cases: measure it. Measure it with the target machine, the target JVM, with typical data, if there is a bottleneck. Else go for readability.

Embedded in context, the short form is sometimes very handy:

System.out.println ("Good morning " + (p.female ? "Miss " : "Mister ") + p.getName ()); 

Answer 2

For the example given, I prefer the ternary or condition operator (?) for a specific reason: I can clearly see that assigning a is not optional. With a simple example, it's not too hard to scan the if-else block to see that a is assigned in each clause, but imagine several assignments in each clause:

if (i == 0)
{
    a = 10;
    b = 6;
    c = 3;
}
else
{
    a = 5;
    b = 4;
    d = 1;
}

a = (i == 0) ? 10 : 5;
b = (i == 0) ? 6  : 4;
c = (i == 0) ? 3  : 9;
d = (i == 0) ? 12 : 1;

I prefer the latter so that you know you haven't missed an assignment.

Answer 3

If there's any performance difference (which I doubt), it will be negligible. Concentrate on writing the simplest, most readable code you can.

Having said that, try to get over your aversion of the conditional operator - while it's certainly possible to overuse it, it can be really useful in some cases. In the specific example you gave, I'd definitely use the conditional operator.