Is there a Matlab conditional IF operator that can be placed INLINE like VBA's IIF

Question

In VBA I can do the following:

A = B + IIF(C>0, C, 0)

so that if C>0 I get A=B+C and C<=0 I get A=B

Answer 1

How about simply using the fact that MATLAB automatically converts variable types when required by the operation? E.g., logical to double.

If your variables are scalar double, your code, I believe, can be replaced by

a = b + (c > 0) * c;

In this case, the operator (c > 0) values 1 (logical type) whenever c > 0 and values to 0 otherwise.

Answer 2

There is no built-in solution for this, but you can write an IIF yourself.

function result=iif(cond, t, f)
%IIF - Conditional function that returns T or F, depending of condition COND
%
%  Detailed 
%     Conditional matrix or scalar double function that returns a matrix
%     of same size than COND, with T or F depending of COND boolean evaluation
%     if T or/and F has the same dimensions than COND, it uses the corresponding 
%     element in the assignment
%     if COND is scalar, returns T or F in according with COND evaluation, 
%     even if T or F is matrices like char array.
%
%  Syntax
%    Result = iif(COND, T, F)
%           COND - Matrix or scalar condition
%           T  - expression if COND is true
%           F  - expression if COND is false
%           Result - Matrix or scalar of same dimensions than COND, containing
%                    T if COND element is true or F if COND element is false.
%
if isscalar(cond) 
   if cond 
       result = t;
   else
       result = f;
   end
else
  result = (cond).*t + (~cond).*f;
end  
end

Answer 3

Others have said already that there is no ternary ?: operator in Matlab. As a solution I suggest this function, which takes three functions instead of values. Therefore the amount of unnecessary calculations is minimized and you can check conditions before starting calculations, e.g. if a value is really numeric, or finite, or nonzero:

function [ out ] = iif( condition, thenF, elseF, in, out)
%iif Implements the ternary ?: operator
%   out = iif (@condition, @thenF, @elseF, in[, out])
%
%   The result is equivalent to:
%   condition(x) ? thenF(x) : elseF(x)
%
%   The optional argument out serves as a template, if the output type is
%   different from the input type, e.g. for mapping arrays to cells and
%   vice versa.
%
% This code is in the public domain.

mask = condition(in);
if nargin <= 4
  out = in;
end

if sum(mask)
  out(mask)  = thenF(in(mask));
end
if sum(~mask)
  out(~mask) = elseF(in(~mask));
end

end

Use it like this:

f = @(y)(iif(@(x)(x > 3), @(x)(x.^2), @(x)(x/2), y))
f(linspace(0,6,10))

Answer 4

Inspired by Jonas' answer the function below also works for mixed type input and chars, for which his function isn't stable.

function out = iif(cond, a, b)
%IIF implements a ternary operator

    % Use cell output for either char or mixed type input
    if ischar(a) || ischar(b) || ~strcmp(class(a), class(b))
        out = cell(size(cond));
        [out{cond}] = deal(a);
        [out{~cond}] = deal(b);
    else
        % Use array output and logical indexing
        out = repmat(b, size(cond));
        out(cond) = a;
    end
end

Edit: weeded out the extra conditional options in the cell branch, which were apparently remnants of a previous mistake, this is probably faster, and definitely cleaner.

Answer 5

There is now a tern function on the MathWorks file exchange: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/39735-functional-programming-constructs/content/tern.m

The code is reproduced here:

function varargout = tern(condition, true_action, false_action)

% out = tern(condition, true_action, false_action)
% 
% Ternary operator. If the first input is true, it returns the second
% input. Otherwise, it returns the third input. This is useful for writing
% compact functions and especially anonymous functions. Note that, like
% many other languages, if the condition is true, not only is the false
% condition not returned, it isn't even executed. Likewise, if the
% condition is false, the true action is never executed. The second and
% third arguments can therefore be function handles or values.
%
% Example:
%
% >> tern(rand < 0.5, @() fprintf('hi\n'), pi)
% ans =
%     3.1416
% >> tern(rand < 0.5, @() fprintf('hi\n'), pi)
% hi
%
% It works with multiple outputs as well.
%
% >> [min_or_max, index] = tern(rand < 0.5, ...
%                               @() min([4 3 5]), ...
%                               @() max([4 3 5]))
% min_or_max =
%      5
% index =
%      3
%
% Tucker McClure
% Copyright 2013 The MathWorks, Inc.

    if condition() % Works for either a value or function handle.
        [varargout{1:nargout}] = true_action();
    else
        [varargout{1:nargout}] = false_action();
    end

end

Answer 6

Using:

eval('input;', 'input = 1;');

is very helpful where 'input' might not exist in the first place.