Evaluating "IF ELSE" shorthand as part of a toString() Implementation

Question

I have write the following toString() methode

public String toString() {
    return "Product: "+ this.productName + ", Barcode: " + this.barCode
            + ", Expiration Date: " + this.expirationDate.toString() + ", Customer Price: "
            + this.customerPrice + ", Shops Price: " + this.shopsPrice
            + ", Instore Amount: " + this.inStoreAmount + ", Sale: "
            + (this.sale == null) ? "Not on sale" : + this.sale.toString();
}

But there is a problem with the way I use the if statement.

eclipse: "cannot covert from string to boolean"

It looks like you have a potential double `+` going on if the condition is not null. — Sterling Archer, Mar 18 '15 at 19:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '15 at 19:33

You had an issue with the balancing of concatenation operator +. Also, I edited your method to be the following:

public String toString() {
    return "Product: "+ this.productName + ", Barcode: " + this.barCode
            + ", Expiration Date: " + this.expirationDate.toString() + ", Customer Price: "
            + this.customerPrice + ", Shops Price: " + this.shopsPrice
            + ", Instore Amount: " + this.inStoreAmount + ", Sale: "+ ((this.sale == null) ? "Not on sale" : this.sale.toString());
}

When you are writing IF-ELSE short hand, try to keep everything in a (...) set of parentheses to keep track of things easily. I don't care what other professionals say about this, but if this helps you to understand things, so be it!

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

1

This is illegal syntax

(this.sale == null) ? "Not on sale" : + this.sale.toString()

and a compilation error should have alerted you to this problem.

Instead, use

((this.sale == null) ? "Not on sale" : this.sale.toString())

I've placed the entire ternary operator into parentheses to be clear.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

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answered Mar 18 '15 at 19:34

aliteralmind

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Evaluating "IF ELSE" shorthand as part of a toString() Implementation

2 Answers2