Ternary Operator

Ternary Operator

The ternary operator packs an if/else into one line. It's also called a conditional expression.

The syntax

value = x if condition else y

If the condition is True, you get x; otherwise you get y.

Example

a = 330
b = 200
result = "a is bigger" if a > b else "b is bigger"
print(result)  # a is bigger

Compare with a normal if

The same logic with a full if/else is longer:

if a > b:
    result = "a is bigger"
else:
    result = "b is bigger"

The ternary is the compact one-liner.

Multiple conditions

You can chain them, but keep it readable:

grade = "Pass" if score >= 60 else "Fail"

TL;DR

• a if cond else b picks one of two values.
• It's the one-line replacement for a simple if/else.
• Use it for short choices; keep longer logic in full if/else.