Using return in ternary operator

Question

I\'m trying to use return in a ternary operator, but receive an error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_RETURN 

Here\'s the code:

Answer 1

It doesn't work in most languages because return is a statement (like if, while, etc.), rather than an operator that can be nested in an expression. Following the same logic you wouldn't try to nest an if statement within an expression:

// invalid because 'if' is a statement, cannot be nested, and yields no result
func(if ($a) $b; else $c;); 

// valid because ?: is an operator that yields a result
func($a ? $b : $c); 

It wouldn't work for break and continue as well.