Conditional statements inside `printf`

Question

Is there any method to use a conditional statement inside other statements, for example printf?

One way is using ternary operator ? : eg:

printf("%d", a < b ? a : b);

Is there a method for more complicated conditions?

Answer 1

There is no need for more complex expressions, the conditional operator is already bad enough. There is no language feature for it. Instead, write a function.

printf("%d", compare(a,b)); // good programming, readable code

printf("%d", a<b?(x<y?x:y):(x<y?y:x)); // bad programming, unreadable mess

Answer 2

You cannot put statements into printf at all, you only can put expressions there. The ternary operator forms an expression. An expression is basically a tree of operators and operands, however there are a few funny operators allowed, like the ',' comma operator or the '=' assignment operator. This allows expressions to have side effects.

Answer 3

Every conditional statement return 1 or 0. These values are int

So if you do printf("%d",a>b); then either 1(true) or 0(false) will be printed.

In your example you are using ternary operator a<b?a:b. If condition is true then a will be printed else b.