I have been using a ternary operator in JavaScript to modify the value of an object based on user input. I have the following code, which runs as it should:
var inputOneAns = inputOne == "Yes" ? "517" : "518";
As you can see, I am assigning a numeric string value to inputOneAns
whether a user has inputed "Yes" or "No". However, there may be a case that a user has not selected a value (as it is not required). If this input was left blank, I would like to assign an empty string "" to inputOneAns
. Is there a wayf or me to embed an ternary operator inside of another ternary operator? To help clarify, here is the same function that I want to accompolish with my ternary function but with if else statements?
if (inputOne == "Yes"){
var inputOneAns = "517"
}else if (inputOne == "No"{
var inputOneAns = "518"
}else{
var inputOneAns = ""
}
Is it possible to include multiple expressions into a ternary function? Is there a better way to accomplish what I am looking for? Thanks for the tips in advance.
Yes you can go wild nesting ternaries. I find this version to be fairly readable:
var foo = (
bar === 'a' ? 1 : // if
bar === 'b' ? 2 : // else if
bar === 'c' ? 3 : // else if
null // else
);
but that's not a widely shared opinion, and you should probably stick to if/else
or switch
when working on a team.
A switch statement is likely the best choice in a situation like this.
let inputOneAns;
switch(inputOne) {
case "Yes":
inputOneAns = "517";
break;
case "No":
inputOneNas = "518";
break;
default:
inputOneNas = "";
}
If you could do ternary operations beyond 2 conditions, they would become incredibly messy. You can put conditions together, but I've no idea why you would want that - that would be incredibly messy.
var r = inputOne == "" ? "" : (
inputOne == "Yes" ? "517" : "518");
Unfortunately JavaScript does not provide a super terse and readable way to do this. Personally I would just use some single-line if
statements like this:
var inputOneAns;
if (inputOne === 'Yes') inputOneAns = '517';
if (inputOne === 'No') inputOneAns = '518';
else inputOneAns = '';
Which can be even cleaner if you abstract it into a function (note: no need for else
in this case):
function getInputOneAns(inputOne) {
if (inputOne === 'Yes') return '517';
if (inputOne === 'No') return '518';
return '';
}
Personally, I don't really like switch statements for this for two reasons: firstly those extra break
statements bloating the code, and secondly, switch statements are very limiting - you can only do simple equality checks, and only against a single variable. Besides, in the case that you know you will be always checking a single string I would favour a simple map object:
var map = { 'Yes': '517', 'No': '518' };
var inputOneAns = map[inputOne] || '';
Yeh you can chain them together much like using an else if statement, but it can sometimes be a bit hard to read though, so I tend to split mine over multiple lines.
var inputOneAns = inputOne == 'Yes' ? '517' :
inputOne == 'No' ? '518' : '';
However in this case I would suggest a switch
statement seeing as you're comparing the same value for every case.
Seems like a classic use for a switch statement:
let inputOneAns = '';
switch(inputOne) {
case 'Yes':
inputOneAns = "517";
break;
case 'No':
inputOneAns = "518";
break;
default:
inputOneAns = "";
}
- note you don't actually need the default case, but I find it makes things more readable.