# 7.7 The conditional operator

The conditional operator provides a compact means of inserting conditional expressions. Following the syntax of C, it takes three arguments and is written as `a ? b : c`. The first argument, `a` is a truth criterion to be tested. If the criterion is true, then the operator returns its second argument `b` as its output. Otherwise, the function’s third argument `c` is returned.

`pyxplot> f(x) = (x0)?x:0`
`pyxplot> print "%s %s %s %s %s"%(f(-2),f(-1),f(0),f(1),f(2))`
`0 0 0 1 2`
`pyxplot> x = 2`
`pyxplot> print "x is %s"%(x0)?"positive":"negative"`
`positive`