Python Ternary Operator Tutorial

In this section we will learn what the ternary operator is and how to use it in Python.

Note: in this section we’re assuming you’re familiar with the if statement in Python.

What is Ternary Operator? (Python if else one line)

The ternary operator is a shorter version of an if-else statement.

Basically we use the ternary operator when we want to run a short (single line) conditional statement and return a value based on the result of the condition.

Python Ternary Operator Declaration

This is how we can declare a ternary operator in Python:

[value_on_true] if [expression] else [value_on_false]

value_on_true: this is the value that will be returned if the result of the expression in the ternary operator is True.

if: after the value_on_true we put the keyword if in order to define the expression of the ternary operator.

expression: this is where put the expression to be evaluated.

else: after the expression, comes the else keyword which is used to declare the value that should be returned if the result of the expression was False.

value_on_false: This value will be returned if the result of the expression is False.

Example: python conditional assignment

val = 500
res = 200 if val<600 else 1000
print(res)
Output:
200

Here the condition is to see if the value of the val variable is less than the value 600. If it was then the value 200 will be assigned to the res variable. Otherwise the value 1000 returns and will be assigned to the res variable.

So here because the result of the condition is True, then the value 200 returned as a result.