[swift-evolution] ternary operator ?: suggestion

[Craig Cruden]

multiary is not a natural and easy expression to pronounce.  

ternary was likely used originally because they could not think of something better - but at least it is easy on the tongue…. [composed of 3 parts]

regardless of syntax - maybe just call it a “match expression”.  


> On 2016-01-07, at 10:06:46, Charles Constant via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> > I see what you are trying to do, because of the colon being both used for switch cases and 
> > separators for the ternary and so there needs to be a new character for each case.  
> > I am not sure that putting colons between each case is really necessary though.
> 
> Most of us (including you and I) like a form that starts with " let val = condition ? " like the existing ternary. Let's say a proposal like that gets accepted... I really believe "colons as separators" is the best idea in the case. Otherwise, it gets pretty confusing.. we'll have the existing ternary where a colon does one thing, and our new "extra ternary" where it does something else. 
> 
> This is why I like colons (this won't make sense unless your email has rich text to show the colors): 
> 
> 	let val = color ? 
> 		.Red ! 	0xFF0000 : 
> 		.Green ! 	0x00FF00 : 
> 		_ ! 		0xFFFFFF
> 
> ... no syntax here different from the existing except the addition " .Red ! ". As for the exclamation... Swift already uses an exclamation for a billion other things, which is unfortunate. But the same can be said of "?" and that's already used in a "switch" without causing confusion. 
> 
> > To point 1: I agree it needs a new name, I came up with the “demux expression” 
> > but maybe there is a better name.
> 
> Has anyone suggested "multiary expression" yet? Seems in keeping with "ternary"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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