The ? in this senario is called the ternary operator basically shorthand for an if/else statement e.g
$theValue = ($theValue != "") ? "'" . $theValue . "'" :"NULL"; is the equivalent of if($theValue != "") { $theValue =$theValue ; } else{ $theValue ="NULL"; } ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Field" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 6:23 PM Subject: [PHP] what does this mean in plain english? > Hi. I'm fairly new to PHP and programming in general. I'm learning mostly > by deconstructing what others have written...but even though I have plenty > of PHP books and have searched the Internet high and low, I'm stumped by the > exact meaning in the following function of what the question mark's ("?") > and colon's (":"), mean and do? > > BTW, I'm not looking for an explanation of the function; just what the > question mark's and colon's mean in plain english, so I'll know how to use > them in other places. Thanks! > > Jeff > > ------------------------------------------------------ > function GetSQLValueString($theValue, $theType) > { > $theValue = (!get_magic_quotes_gpc()) ? addslashes($theValue) : $theValue; > > switch ($theType) { > case "text": > $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? "'" . $theValue . "'" : "NULL"; > break; > case "int": > $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? intval($theValue) : "NULL"; > break; > } > return $theValue; > } > ------------------------------------------------------ > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php