What do these question marks mean in the code

Question

What does the "?" mean in code laravel like this?

 $followers = $actionRequest->followers ? [
   'instagram' => $actionRequest->followers?->instagram,
    'tiktok' => $actionRequest->followers?->tiktok,
 ] : null;

Please edit your question so as not to mislead SO users. – Bismark Asiedu Asante Mar 27 '23 at 08:33 — Bismark Asiedu Asante, Mar 27 '23 at 08:33

Bismark Asiedu Asante · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-27T08:32:07.557

-1

This is the ternary operator. It is a conditional operator just like "if".

Given that the first operand evaluates true, evaluate as second operand, else evaluate as third operand.

This means the code will load the followers into the variable $followers if $actionRequest->followers which might be a boolean is true but will be assigned null

Note: ?-> is null safe operator. Which is a different operator altogether

edited Mar 27 '23 at 08:32

answered Mar 27 '23 at 08:27

Bismark Asiedu Asante

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There are 3 question marks in the code, does this apply to all 3 of them? – KIKO Software Mar 27 '23 at 08:28
Yeah just realized that now. – Bismark Asiedu Asante Mar 27 '23 at 08:28
It is a null safe operator. Trying to prevent error in case there is a null value for instagram or tiktok – Bismark Asiedu Asante Mar 27 '23 at 08:30
Indeed here's some documentation: https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.basic.php#language.oop5.basic.nullsafe – KIKO Software Mar 27 '23 at 08:34
Well in my last comment. if the $actionRequest->followers does not have the attribute instagram or tiktok it will not give an error. It is used in the situation where $actionRequest->followers? could have one, both attributes or none at all. – Bismark Asiedu Asante Mar 27 '23 at 08:39

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 27 '23 at 08:29

-1

this is called ternary operation.

$x = condition ? expr2 : expr3 ;

the value of $x is expr2 if condition is true and expr3 if condition is false .

so in your example the value of $followers if $actionRequest->followers is true, is

[ 'instagram' => $actionRequest->followers?->instagram, 'tiktok' => $actionRequest->followers?->tiktok, ]

, unless it return null.

answered Mar 27 '23 at 08:29

zohrehda

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There are 3 question marks in the code, does this apply to all 3 of them? – KIKO Software Mar 27 '23 at 08:31
` 'instagram' => $actionRequest->followers?->instagram,` has wrong syntax. I think some part of it is removed. – zohrehda Mar 27 '23 at 08:35
1

It's not wrong, it the new nullsafe operator, see: https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.basic.php#language.oop5.basic.nullsafe – KIKO Software Mar 27 '23 at 08:38

What do these question marks mean in the code

2 Answers2