Java Ternary Operator Error

Question

1. Errors are illegal start of an expression
2. error: not a statement
3. ';' expected

I am receiving an error about my if else statement in takeStix().

private int numStix;

public int getNumStix() {return numStix;}

public boolean takeStix(int number) {
      ( number <= 3 && number <= getNumStix() ) ? return true : return false;
}

Answer 1

You can't put statements (like return true ) in the ternary operator, only values.

So you could put:

return (number <= 3 && number <= getNumStix()) ? true : false;

But you don't even need a ternary operator for this:

public boolean takeStix(int number) {
    return (number <= 3 && number <= getNumStix());
}

Answer 2

In your case, as @khelwood has shown, you don't need a ternary expression. In general, however, the format for using a ternary expression in a return statement should be

return boolean_condition ? something : something_else

For example,

public boolean takeStix(int number) {
    return number <= Math.min(3, getNumStix()) ? true : false;
}