[jeremiep]

The ternary is an expression, not a statement :)

You can write: a = b ? c : d; in C/C++, you can't write a = if(b) { c; } else { d; }.

[tarabukka]

Oh, yeah. My mistake. Although what you describe is a lot more functional in style. You could probably emulate it in a language with higher-order functions.