Conditional Operators in Javascript

Question

Is it ok to use conditional operators like a statement like so?

(x == y) ? alert(\"yo!\") : alert(\"meh!\");

Or is it more correct to use it to

Answer 1

JavaScript won't prevent you from doing it, but it's very a unusual practice that will confuse anyone reading your code.

The conditional operator is almost always used for selecting two alternative values, not statements. An if statement is preferred for conditional branching of statements.

As to your last question, yes, if you really must, you can abuse the [] construct:

(x == y) ? [alert("yo!"), document.write("woot!")] : otherstuff();

But please don't. 8-)