So, I have learn the hard way that tertiary operators are confusing to some people. (Never was to me.)

At some point while I was developing a game, I was presented with the task of fixing a bug related to running backward & while strafing. I look at the code.

(pseudo code btw)

if(isRunning)

movespeed = normalSpeed * runSpeed;

else

movespeed = normalSpeed;

and so, I did the only thing that made sense to me to simplify the block of if-else that would ensue with restricting the run.

if(isRunning) ( if(isMovingForward) (normalSpeed * runSpeed) : (if(canRunSideway && movingSideway || canRunBackward && movingBackward) normalSpeed * runSpeed : normalSpeed ) ) : (normalSpeed);

In hindsight, I can see why someone wouldn't understand such a line.

*Waiting with bated breath for the continuation*

Sorry about that, couldn't complete it before I had to lose access to the site. Conclusion is up.

Its "ternary", not "tertiary" -- though its an easy mistake I was once guitly of myself. "Ternary" means "composed of three parts", "tertiary" means "of the third order, as in primary->secondary->tertiary."

I've never seen this form of ternary operator before though -- what language is this? In most (all?) languages, ternary operators are expressions (meaning that they have a value which can be assigned, passed to a function or otherwise consumed directly), whereas if-else constructs in most* procedural languages (C, C++, and cousins) are not expressions, they're statements. If you don't take advantage of of their status as an expression, code using ternary operators usually is more ugly than if-else-style code, and its often the case that when if-else-style code changed into a ternary expression is still ugly, then it was probably better off as if-else anyways.

Using C-and-friends-style ternary operators, cleaner code might look like this:

auto move_speed = (is_running) ? normal_speed * run_speed : normal_speed;

Or even this:

auto move_speed = normal_speed * ((is_running) ? run_speed : 1);

* Many functional or functional-inspired languages have if-else expressions rather than statements.

Yeah, the example replacement in the first post is not that great because it's actually adding more stuff (and indeed adding enough to be way too much for the ternary operator to stay readable).

That said, if it was up to me I'd do:

move_speed = normal_speed;
if (running)
   move_speed *= run_speed;

I'm lame =P