Strange behavior with ternary operator

[johnmerlino]

Hey all,

when job_title property is equal to null, I want this to happen:

 

Welcome to the blog of John Merlino.

 

If it is not null then:

 

Welcome to the blog of John Merlino, a web designer. //where web designer refers to the value stored in job_title

 

So I come up with this:

 

echo "Welcome to the blog of " . $blogger->first_name . ' ' . $blogger->last_name  . (!is_null($blogger->job_title)) ? ', ' . $blogger->job_title . '.' : '.';

 

But when job_title is null, all the page renders is this:

, .

 

That's right. Just a comma, then a space, and then a period.

 

What am I missing here?

 

Thanks for response.

 

[johnmerlino]

Now this works fine:

 

	$str = "Welcome to the blog of " . $blogger->first_name . ' ' . $blogger->last_name;
	$str .= (!is_null($blogger->job_title)) ? ', ' . $blogger->job_title . '.' : '.';
	echo $str;

 

But why the need for string concatenation here? Why couldn't I stick ternary on the same line?

[nethnet]

You could have put it on the same line if you enclosed the entire ternary operation inside parentheses.

[johnmerlino]

thanks for response.