The ? : Operator in Perl

Let's check the conditional operator? : in Perl which can be used to replace if...else statements. It has the following general form −

Syntax

Exp1 ? Exp2 : Exp3;

Where Exp1, Exp2, and Exp3 are expressions. Notice the use and placement of the colon.

The value of a? expression is determined like this: Exp1 is evaluated. If it is true, then Exp2 is evaluated and becomes the value of the entire? expression. If Exp1 is false, then Exp3 is evaluated and its value becomes the value of the expression. Below is a simple example making use of this operator −

Example

 Live Demo

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
$name = "Ali";
$age = 10;
$status = ($age > 60 )? "A senior citizen" : "Not a senior citizen";
print "$name is - $status\n";

Output

This will produce the following result −

Ali is - Not a senior citizen