Can somebody help me break down this 1 line of code ??

[mOrloff]

I'm reviewing someone elses code, and came across this line:

PHP Code:

<?php echo ($view=='folded')? 'folded_form_step':'form_step';?>

There are several things I'd like to learn here.

For starters, what is ($view=='folded')? all about? This is the first time I've seen anything like that. Is that shorthand for an IF statement or something ?
Next, what's with the : (colon)?

Can someone walk me through what's being done here ??

FYI: this is in a class which builds forms, and $folded_form_step & $form_step are vars which get passed into the class, but the code in question does not use the dollar signs. Are they related?

~ Mo

[Fou-Lu]

Ternary operator.
($view == 'folded') <- Indicates a condition. Techincally the brackets are not required
? expression <- What to do if its true
: expression <- What do to if its false

In 5.3 (I think its 5.3 it was introduced) you can actually do a shorthanded ternary for just the else:
($d == 'data') ?: 'no match';

PHP Code:

echo ($view=='folded')? 'folded_form_step':'form_step';
// is the same as
if ($view == 'folded')
{
    echo 'folded_form_step';
}
else
{
    echo 'form_step';
} 


[Dormilich]

Originally Posted by Fou-Lu

In 5.3 (I think its 5.3 it was introduced) you can actually do a shorthanded ternary for just the else:
($d == 'data') ?: 'no match';

the true case returns the evaluation of the condition. i.e. this code would return 1 if $d = "data".

[mOrloff]

Ahah!

Thanks-a-bunch.