It's essentially like a returning inline if statement. The first expression is the test, and if it's true it will execute the expression after the question mark, if it's false, it will execute the expression after the colon e.g 
my $foo = "test";
print +( $foo =~ /^\w+\z/ ? "condition true" : "condition false" ),$/;

my $bar = defined $x ? $x : "nought";
print "\$bar is: $bar", $/;

__output__

condition true
$bar is: nought

[download]
See the Conditional Operator section in the perlop manpage for more details.
HTH

_________
broquaint

In reply to Re: ternary operator ? by broquaint
in thread ternary operator ? by sulfericacid

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