I expect the following code to behave the same whether using "normal" if or "ternary" ? : ; style if.

You seem to be confused. C<?:> is an operator, whereas if is a flow control syntactical keyword. While you can use the former instead of the latter: 

(.5<rand) ? print "Wow\n" : die "horribly";

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you really shouldn't. I may get heavily downvoted for saying that you "can", so I'll stress once more that you really really shouldn't. Except in golf and obfu, that is.

The point is that you should use C<?:> if you're interested in its return value. And of course you can't use if instead of it, because the latter does not return anything. You will rapidly learn in which situations it is worth to use one and in which ones it is worth to use the other...

In reply to Re: Ternary if versus normal if question by blazar
in thread Ternary if versus normal if question by tphyahoo

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