this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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Ah, I understand now. The expression is evaluated like this:
$a == 1 ? "one" : $a == 2 ? "two" : $a == 3 ? "three" : "other"$a == 2 ? "two" : $a == 3 ? "three" : "other""two" ? "three" : "other""three"Halp. I don’t understand how it went from step 2 to step 3.
It's cause PHP associates the if-then-else pair only with its immediate "else" option, not with the entirety of the line.
Let's go by parts.
$a == 1 ? "one" : $a == 2 ? "two" : $a == 3 ? "three" : "other"Is $a equal to 1? If so, we're "set" to the value on the left, which is
"one", if not then we're set to the value on the right, which is$a == 2. $a is not equal to 1, so we're set to the right value,$a == 2.This replaces the relevant part,
$a == 1 ? "one" : $a == 2, with$a == 2. So we're left with:$a == 2 ? "two" : $a == 3 ? "three" : "other"Next, is $a equal to 2? If so, we're set to
"two", if not we're set to$a == 3. The comparison is true, so we're set to the value on the left,"two". The relevant part here is$a == 2 ? "two" : $a == 3only, so it replaces it with"two"cause again, PHP is only associating with its immediate pair. So now we're left with:"two" ? "three" : "other"Finally, is
"two"truthy? If so, we're set to"three", if not we're set to"other". Since"two"is truthy we're then left with"three".It's super confusing for sure.
Thank you!