I wouldn't say "execute", but rather "return". Why? Because it can also return lvalues. In ALGOL, one could do: 
    IF a THEN b ELSE c FI := IF d THEN e ELSE f FI;

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which was great. You can do something like that in Perl using the ternary operator: 

   ($a ? $b : $c) = ($d ? $e : $f);

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You can't do that in C or Java without use much more code.

Abigail

In reply to Re: ternary operator ? by Abigail-II
in thread ternary operator ? by sulfericacid

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