Is the ternary operator faster than an if condition in Java

Question

I am prone to  if-conditional syndrome  which means I tend to use if conditions all the time  I rarely ever use the ternary operator  For instance      I like to do this  int a  if  i    0        a   10    else       a   5       When I could do this  int a    i    0    10 5    Does it matter which I use  Which is faster  Are there any notable performance differences  Is it a better practice to use the shortest code whenever possible

User · Answer

Does it matter which I use    Yes  The second is vastly more readable  You are trading one line which concisely expresses what you want against nine lines of effectively clutter      Which is faster    Neither      Is it a better practice to use the shortest code whenever possible    Not    whenever possible    but certainly whenever possible without detriment effects  Shorter code is at least potentially more readable since it focuses on the relevant part rather than on incidental effects     boilerplate code

User · Answer

It s best to use whatever one reads better - there s in all practical effect 0 difference between performance   In this case I think the last statement reads better than the first if statement  but careful not to overuse the ternary operator - sometimes it can really make things a lot less clear

User · Answer

For the example given  I prefer the ternary or condition operator     for a specific reason  I can clearly see that assigning a is not optional   With a simple example  it s not too hard to scan the if-else block to see that a is assigned in each clause  but imagine several assignments in each clause   if  i    0        a   10      b   6      c   3    else       a   5      b   4      d   1     a    i    0    10   5  b    i    0    6    4  c    i    0    3    9  d    i    0    12   1    I prefer the latter so that you know you haven t missed an assignment

User · Answer

Ternary operators are just shorthand  They compile into the equivalent if-else statement  meaning they will be exactly the same

User · Answer

Also  the ternary operator enables a form of  optional  parameter   Java does not allow optional parameters in method signatures but the ternary operator enables you to easily inline a default choice when null is supplied for a parameter value   For example   public void myMethod int par1  String optionalPar2         String par2     optionalPar2    null    getDefaultString     optionalPar2               trim                toUpperCase getDefaultLocale         In the above example  passing null as the String parameter value gets you a default string value instead of a NullPointerException   It s short and sweet and  I would say  very readable   Moreover  as has been pointed out  at the byte code level there s really no difference between the ternary operator and if-then-else   As in the above example  the decision on which to choose is based wholly on readability   Moreover  this pattern enables you to make the String parameter truly optional  if it is deemed useful to do so  by overloading the method as follows   public void myMethod int par1        return myMethod par1  null

User · Answer

Try to use switch case statement but normally it s not the performance bottleneck

User · Answer

If there s any performance difference  which I doubt   it will be negligible  Concentrate on writing the simplest  most readable code you can   Having said that  try to get over your aversion of the conditional operator - while it s certainly possible to overuse it  it can be really useful in some cases  In the specific example you gave  I d definitely use the conditional operator

User · Answer

Ternary Operator example   int a    i    0    10   5    You can t do assignment with if else like this       invalid  int a   if  i    0  10  else 5    This is a good reason to use the ternary operator  If you don t have an assignment    i    0    foo      bar       an if else isn t that much more code    if  i    0  foo     else bar       In performance critical cases  measure it  Measure it with the target machine  the target JVM  with typical data  if there is a bottleneck  Else go for readability   Embedded in context  the short form is sometimes very handy   System out println   Good morning      p female    Miss      Mister      p getName

User · Answer

Yes  it matters  but not because of code execution performance  Faster  performant  coding is more relevant for looping and object instantiation than simple syntax constructs   The compiler should handle optimization  it s all gonna be about the same binary   so your goal should be efficiency for You-From-The-Future  humans are always the bottleneck in software   The answer citing 9 lines versus one can be misleading  fewer lines of code does not always equal better  Ternary operators can be a more concise way in limited situations  your example is a good one   BUT they can often be abused to make code unreadable  which is a cardinal sin    do not nest ternary operators  Also consider future maintainability  if-else is much easier to extend or modify  int a  if   i    0  amp  amp  k    7        a   10      logger debug   quot debug message here quot      else     a   3      logger debug   quot other debug message here quot         int a    i    0  amp  amp  k   7     10   3      density without logging nor ability to use breakpoints  p s  very complete StackOverflow answer at To ternary or not to ternary

[java] Is the ternary operator faster than an "if" condition in Java

Examples related to java

Examples related to performance

Examples related to optimization