The ternary operator
The ternary conditional operator ? allows Java programmers to define expressions. It's a condensed form of the if-else statement that also returns a value.
The following Java source
result = var1 > var2 ? 1 : var1 < var2 ? -1 : 0; |
can’t be translated directly to COBOL.
Before translating it to COBOL, you have to translate it to the corresponding if-else statement, that is:
if(var1 == var2) result = 0; else if(var1 > var2) result = 1; else result = -1; |
This equivalent syntax is easily translatable to COBOL as follows:
if var1 = var2 set result to 0 else if var1 > var2 set result to 1 else set result to -1 end-if. |