Unexpected Coffeescript transformation with if? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

Conditional operator in Coffeescript (7 answers)

Closed 8 years ago.

This CoffeeScript:

x = y > z ? 'a' : 'b'

Compiles to:

x = (_ref = y > z) != null ? _ref : {
  'a': 'b'
};

I assume this is expected, just not intuitive.

This there a better way to do this in coffeescript?

Answer 1

CoffeeScript's ? operator is the existence operator ("soak" or "elvis" names are also used). exemple : context = window ? global.

The CoffeeScript way of doing it is x = if x > z then 'a' else 'b' (or x = x > z and 'a' or 'b', but the "and" operand must be truthy for this to work) which will compile down to the ternary operator you'd expect.

Answer 2

You can use if instead of ?::

x = if y > z then 'a' else 'b'

this compiles to

var x;

x = y > z ? 'a' : 'b';

Answer 3

I guess this is what I want, but I don't know if I happy with it.

Coffeescript:

x = if y > z then 'a' else 'b'

Javascript

x = y > z ? 'a' : 'b';