Conditional Operator Ternary "?:" is the conditional operator, just as in C. It works much like an if-then-else. If the argument before the ? is true, the argument before the : is returned, otherwise the argument after the : is returned. For example: printf "I have %d dog%s.\n", $n, ($n == 1) ? '' : "s"; Scalar or list context propagates downward into the 2nd or 3rd argument, whichever is selected. $a = $ok ? $b : $c; # get a scalar @a = $ok ? @b : @c; # get an array $a = $ok ? @b : @c; # oops, that's just a count! The operator may be assigned to if both the 2nd and 3rd arguments are legal lvalues (meaning that you can assign to them): ($a_or_b ? $a : $b) = $c; Because this operator produces an assignable result, using assignments without parentheses will get you in trouble. For example, this: $a % 2 ? $a += 10 : $a += 2 Really means this: (($a % 2) ? ($a += 10) : $a) += 2 Rather than this: ($a % 2) ? ($a += 10) : ($a += 2) That should probably be written more simply as: $a += ($a % 2) ? 10 : 2;