Ternary doesn't work

Unity Engine
1

I don’t use it often(duh) but after 20 mins i wonder,…

    void ChangeMat()
    {
        boolValue ? rend.material = Mat_1 : rend.material = Mat_2;
    }
2

without knowing what’s not working about it … use sharedmaterial not material. material makes a duplicate copy of the material and uses that instead.

so if you’re altering your material after you’ve assigned it and wondering why you’re not seeing the changes … that’s why. the renderer has a different material.

3

oh nonono, it doesn’t even compile, says
“Only assignment, call, increment, decrement, await, and new object expressions can be used as a statement”
it’s that boolValue, but bool is a condition, i am khonfusion

4

Hi @Reedex

Ternary operator returns something, so you’ll have to formulate your code like this:

var boolValue = true;
int setValue = 0;

// if boolValue is true, return 1 else return 0
setValue = boolValue ? 1 : 0;

Debug.Log("SetValue:" + setValue);

So in this case, setValue variable could be your renderer’s material

1 Like
5

Thanks, don’t know why i didn’t try this.silly : - )

6

The ?: operator (C# reference) isn’t used that way, @Reedex .

Effectively, this ternary operator replaces this:

bool myVariable;
if(condition){
    myVariable = true;
} else {
    myVariable = false;
}

It does not, however, replace this:

if(condition){
    someMethodA();
} else {
    someMethodB();
}

and it also does not allow you to replace the IF-Statement as you try in your original statement.

Correct would be:

if(boolValue){
    rend.material = Mat_1 :
} else {
    rend.material = Mat_2;
}

Which is then shortened to:

rend.material = boolValue ? Mat_1 : Mat_2;

C-Sharp has some syntax sugar that greatly shortens what you have to write, but not as much as you try in your original post :wink:

2 Likes
7

yes i gathered by now (testing gave wrong results)
I will use your source-post later : - ) Thanks

oh, nevermind i got it, your very last snippet made it click : - ) Thanks again

8

You are welcome! When running into such issues, I highly recommend to look into Microsoft’s documentation and programming guides, as I linked to the ternary operator before. They almost always provide detailled, yet simple examples.

1 Like
9

well i did, i do post on forum (mostly) as a last resort
but this example of theirs

is this condition true ? yes : no

made me think i do it the right way…

boolValue ? doThing_A : doThing_B;

because how could this condition be true? (rhetoric question(to an extent))

rend.material = boolValue
10

@Reedex , I myself have fallen for that, too. It is important to not scan over the articles too quickly, since for instance “is this condition true ? yes : no” implies a lot but actually only means a very particular thing. Thus, I recommend to do read through the coded examples, where they use the stuff themselves.