# JavaScript Ternary Operator

> Learn how the JavaScript ternary operator gives you a short way to write a conditional with three operands, choosing one of two expressions to run.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2019-06-15 | Topics: [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/js/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/javascript-ternary-operator/

The **ternary operator** is the only operator in [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/javascript/) that works with 3 operands, and it's a short way to express conditionals.

This is how it looks:

```js
<condition> ? <expression> : <expression>
```

The condition `<condition>` is evaluated as a boolean, and upon the result, the operator runs the first expression (if the condition is true) or the second.

This is an example: we check if `running` equals to true, and if this is the case we call the `stop()` function. Otherwise we call the `run()` function:

Example usage:

```js
const running = true;
(running === true) ? stop() : run()
```