Java is equipped with a selection operator that allows us to construct a conditional expression. The use of a conditional expression can in some cases simplify the code with respect to the use of an if-else statement.
Syntax:
condition ? expression-1 : expression-2
Semantics:
Evaluate condition. If the result is true, then evaluate expression-1 and return its value, otherwise evaluate expression-2 and return its value.
Example:
System.out.println("bigger value = " + (a > b)? a : b);
The statement in the example, which makes use of a conditional expression, is equivalent to:
if (a > b) System.out.println("bigger value = " + a); else System.out.println("bigger value = " + b);
Note that the selection operator is similar to the if-else statement, but it works at a different syntactic level: