Editing Ternary operation (section)

==Computer science==

In computer science, a ternary operator is an [[operator (computer programming)|operator]] that takes three arguments (or operands).<ref name="MDM nmve"/> The arguments and result can be of different types. Many [[programming language]]s that use [[C syntax|C-like syntax]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hoffer |first1=Alex |title=Ternary Operator |website=Cprogramming.com |url=https://www.cprogramming.com/reference/operators/ternary-operator.html |accessdate=20 February 2017}}</ref> feature a ternary operator, <code>[[?:]]</code>, which defines a [[conditional (programming)#If expressions|conditional expression]]. In some languages, this operator is referred to as the ''conditional operator''.

In [[Python (programming language)|Python]], the ternary conditional operator reads <code>x if C else y</code>. Python also supports ternary operations called [[array slicing]], e.g. <code>a[b:c]</code> return an array where the first element is <code>a[b]</code> and last element is <code>a[c-1]</code>.<ref>{{cite web |title=6. Expressions — Python 3.9.1 documentation |url=https://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html |access-date=2021-01-19 |website=docs.python.org}}</ref> [[OCaml]] expressions provide ternary operations against records, arrays, and strings: <code>a.[b]<-c</code> would mean the string <code>a</code> where index <code>b</code> has value <code>c</code>.<ref>{{cite web |title=The OCaml Manual: Chapter 11 The OCaml language: (7) Expressions |website=ocaml.org |url=https://v2.ocaml.org/manual/expr.html |access-date=2023-05-03}}</ref>

The [[multiply–accumulate operation]] is another ternary operator.

Another example of a ternary operator is ''between'', as used in [[SQL]].

The [[Icon (programming language)|Icon programming language]] has a "to-by" ternary operator: the expression <code>1 to 10 by 2</code> generates the [[parity (mathematics)|odd]] integers from 1 through 9.

In Excel formulae, the form is =if(C, x, y).