Swazi Ternary Expressions

SwaziLang supports ternary expressions for quick, inline conditional value assignment.
Ternary expressions are a concise way to choose between two values based on a condition—similar to the kama...vinginavyo statement, but written in a single line.

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Basic Syntax

data x = cond ? s1 : s2;

• cond: The condition to check (must be an expression that evaluates to kweli or sikweli)
• s1: The value if the condition is true (kweli)
• s2: The value if the condition is false (sikweli)

Example:

data score = 75
data result = score >= 50 ? "pass" : "fail"
chapisha result     // pass

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Chaining Ternary Expressions

You can nest or chain ternaries to test multiple conditions in a compact way.

data x = cond1 ? (cond2 ? s1 : s2) : s3

Example:

data age = 17
data status = age < 13 ? "child" : (age < 18 ? "teen" : "adult")
chapisha status     // teen

Or, using more conditions:

data temp = 37
data label = temp < 0 ? "freezing" : (temp < 20 ? "cold" : (temp < 30 ? "warm" : "hot"))
chapisha label     // hot

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How Ternary Works

• The condition before ? is evaluated first.
• If it is kweli (true), the expression after ? and before : is used.
• If it is sikweli (false), the expression after : is used.
• You can assign the result to a variable or use it directly in other expressions.

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Use Cases

• Quick Value Assignment

  data color = isDark ? "black" : "white"

• Shorten kama...vinginavyo Logic

  data msg = loggedIn ? "Welcome!" : "Please log in."

• Function Return Values

  kazi grade score {
      rudisha score >= 50 ? "pass" : "fail"
  }

• Inline Expressions in Methods

  data person = {
      age: 20,
      tabia thabiti status {
          rudisha $.age < 18 ? "minor" : "adult"
      }
  }
  chapisha person.status    // adult

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Chaining vs. Readability

Chaining ternaries is powerful, but can get hard to read with many conditions.
For complex logic, prefer kama...vinginavyo statements for clarity.

• Good for 2-3 conditions
• Avoid excessive nesting

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Practical Challenge

Write a ternary expression to assign "even" or "odd" to a variable based on whether a number is even.

Solution

data n = 7
data type = n % 2 sawa 0 ? "even" : "odd"
chapisha type    // odd

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Summary:

• Use ternary expressions for quick, inline conditional value assignment.
• Syntax: cond ? valueIfTrue : valueIfFalse
• Nest ternaries for multiple conditions, but keep code readable!