You probably want something like this:

print $a == 6 ? 'yes' : 'no';
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There is no else clause available when you use the postfix if.

Yes, Perl does have the ternary operator like in C, but in a practical sense there is no difference in performance between that and "if", "else". Write the code that is the easiest to understand for you and the folks who will have to understand the code later. Spacing and indenting do matter..this is part of the art of programming.

How "short" the code is, often just doesn't matter at all. How clear the code is, always matters. And that matters more than some "one size fits all coding standard". The code below just has different spacing than your 2nd version, but I hope the difference is clear.

my $a = 2;
if ($a == 6) 
   {print "yes" }
else 
   {print "no"  }
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my $a = 2;
unless ($a == 6) {
    print "no";
}
else
    print "yes";
}
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$a == 6 ? print "yes\n" : print "no\n";
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but a little bit more readable

Debatable :-)

For a simple yes/no print like this you are probably right. For lengthier outputs with, perhaps, a conditional part in the middle your way involves a lot of repeated text which can obscure meaning. Personally, in such cases I find this layout

print
   qq{Fixed part },
   ( conditional expression )
   ? qq{True part }
   : qq{False part },
   qq{Further fixed text here\n};
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more readable than this

( conditional expression )
   ? print qq{Fixed part True part Further fixed text here\n}
   : print qq{Fixed part False part Further fixed text here\n};
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particularly if the condition doesn't require parentheses, but others will probably disagree. I would be more likely to write the latter using an if ( ... ) { ... } else { ... } construct anyway as the meaning is more widely familiar.

Cheers,

JohnGG

I agree ;), and I agree that this is debatable, I am a fan of not repeating commands while using a ternary operator too, in fact, avoiding ternary operators all together should my code be maintained by someone else, however, my answer was relative to this simple requirement put forth by the OP, breaking jwkrahn's reply down for him/her.

---

Excellence is an Endeavor of Persistence. A Year-Old Monk :D .

Compared to jwkrahn's simple and clear version (with one print), this "improvement" (with print occurring twice) is a violation of the DRY principle.

See also Perl Best Practices: Chapter 6 (Control Structures), Tabular Ternaries; and Chapter 2 (Code Layout), Ternaries.

print qw(no yes)[$a == 6]
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