I too, looked for a better answer, and while the solution in Edward's post is "ok", I came up with a far more natural solution in this blog post
Short and sweet:
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name: Invoke-Assignment
# Alias: =
# Author: Garrett Serack (@FearTheCowboy)
# Desc: Enables expressions like the C# operators:
# Ternary:
# <condition> ? <trueresult> : <falseresult>
# e.g.
# status = (age > 50) ? "old" : "young";
# Null-Coalescing
# <value> ?? <value-if-value-is-null>
# e.g.
# name = GetName() ?? "No Name";
#
# Ternary Usage:
# $status == ($age > 50) ? "old" : "young"
#
# Null Coalescing Usage:
# $name = (get-name) ? "No Name"
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# returns the evaluated value of the parameter passed in,
# executing it, if it is a scriptblock
function eval($item) {
if( $item -ne $null ) {
if( $item -is "ScriptBlock" ) {
return & $item
}
return $item
}
return $null
}
# an extended assignment function; implements logic for Ternarys and Null-Coalescing expressions
function Invoke-Assignment {
if( $args ) {
# ternary
if ($p = [array]::IndexOf($args,'?' )+1) {
if (eval($args[0])) {
return eval($args[$p])
}
return eval($args[([array]::IndexOf($args,':',$p))+1])
}
# null-coalescing
if ($p = ([array]::IndexOf($args,'??',$p)+1)) {
if ($result = eval($args[0])) {
return $result
}
return eval($args[$p])
}
# neither ternary or null-coalescing, just a value
return eval($args[0])
}
return $null
}
# alias the function to the equals sign (which doesn't impede the normal use of = )
set-alias = Invoke-Assignment -Option AllScope -Description "FearTheCowboy's Invoke-Assignment."
Which makes it easy to do stuff like (more examples in blog post):
$message == ($age > 50) ? "Old Man" :"Young Dude"