Ternary (from Latin ternarius) is an adjective meaning “composed of three items”. (source) So, literally, the ternary operator in Python is composed of three operands.
Syntax: The three operands are written in an intuitive combination ... if ... else ....
<On True> if <Condition> else <On False>
| Operand | Description |
|---|---|
| <On True> | The return expression of the operator in case the condition evaluates to True |
| <Condition> | The condition that determines whether to return the <On True> or the <On False> branch. |
| <On False> | The return expression of the operator in case the condition evaluates to False |
Let’s have a look at a minimum example in our interactive code shell:
Exercise: Run the code and input your age. What’s the output? Run the code again and try to change the output!
Let’s dive into the different variants of the Ternary operator in Python!
Python Ternary Examples
Let’s have a quick overview of a few examples on different methods to use the ternary operator:
age = 17 # Method 1: Basic Ternary
print('wtf' if age<20 else 'What?') 'wtf' # Method 2: Ternary Tuple
# (onFalse, onTrue) [condition]
print(('wtf', 'What?') [age<20]) 'What?' # Method 3: Ternary Dictionary
# Use Dictionary True/False values
print({True: 'wtf', False: 'What?'} [age<20]) 'wtf' # Method 4: Ternary Lambda
# Lambda function with 0 arguments
# Execute only one branch expression --> more efficient
print((lambda: 'wtf', lambda:'What?') [age<20]()) 'What?'
Some of them are pretty confusing, right? Stay with me for a moment because you’ll learn about each of those next! 
Python Ternary Tuple
Python Ternary Dictionary
Python Ternary Lambda
Python Ternary Multiple Lines
Python Ternary Elif
Python Ternary Nested
Python Ternary Plot
Python Ternary Diagram
Python Ternary Evaluation Order
Python Ternary Try Except
Python Ternary Tree
Python Ternary in List Comprehension
Python Ternary Pep8 Pythonic
Python Ternary Can’t Assign to Conditional Expression
Python Ternary For Loop
Python Ternary Break
Python Ternary None
Python Ternary Multiple Conditions
Where to Go From Here?
Enough theory, let’s get some practice!
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