c programming: Conversion of < ? : type condition to simple if else

Question

Can somebody tell me what does the following expression mean in a C code?

A = B < C ? B:C;

I know that it's an if-else condition, but don't know it works. I will appreciate if somebody wrote it in simple if else conditions.

Don't have reputation to comment/feedback or appreciate.

@WillemVanOnsem, look at question tags. For `C#` the closest duplicate probably is [this](https://stackoverflow.com/q/3312786/1997232). — Sinatr, May 22 '17 at 15:19

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 22 '17 at 15:14

You can translate it to the following:

if (B < C)
    A = B;
else
    A = C;

This is called a ternary operator (or in C# conditional operator).

It returns the value after the question mark if the condition is true and otherwise returns the value after the colon:

condition ? ReturnedIfConditionIsTrue : ReturnedIfConditionIsFalse

1 Answers1