Javascript ternary operator with empty 2nd expression

Question

I've looked at somewhat similar questions like this or this but they are answering a different question as they look at assignment operations. For example my code is

!item.completed ? addTask(item) : null

as I would like to execute a certain function if condition is met or do nothing if it's not met. My question is what would be considered a good practice to pass as an 'empty' 2nd expression?

I saw a lot of people using null, on the other hand I think that using an empty string '' is also a valid option as since there is no assignment happening an empty string is faster to type and doesn't seem to have any cons.

The ternary operator isn't appropriate here if there is no third thing. Just use an `if`. — , Dec 02 '16 at 20:53
why not just use if? if minification is your goal then '' is better — Alexander Taran, Dec 02 '16 at 20:53
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on codereview but I can't transfer there. — Joshua, Dec 03 '16 at 04:15

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 02 '16 at 20:53

16

You could use logical or ||

item.completed || addTask(item)

answered Dec 02 '16 at 20:53

Nina Scholz

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Never thought about the OR operator in this way, thank you for opening the new use for it – Anton Kastritskiy Dec 02 '16 at 21:13

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '16 at 20:54

3

I think this is not a good use of the ternary operator.

I'd either do:

if (!item.completed) addTask(item);

Or

!item.completed && addTask(item);

answered Dec 02 '16 at 20:54

plalx

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score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 02 '16 at 20:56

1

You could use:

!item.completed && addTask(item);

There's no point using a ternary if you don't need it.

edited Dec 02 '16 at 20:56

Cjmarkham

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answered Dec 02 '16 at 20:54

TigOldBitties

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Javascript ternary operator with empty 2nd expression

3 Answers3