Wrong and Wrong Again
Java's Ternary Operator - No, it's Not!
I need to stop referring to the ternary operator (? :) in Java as “the ternary operator”. It is not the ternary operator; it is a ternary operator. It may currently be the only ternary operator in the core Java Language Specification - but even so, I should call it by its correct name, which is the conditional operator.
Java's Modulo Operator - No, it's Not!
I need to stop referring to the modulo (%) operator in Java as “the modulo operator”. It’s the remainder operator.
Java does not have a modulo operator.
Here is how Java’s remainder operator behaves, along with division (assuming int):
| Expression | Result |
|---|---|
5/3 |
1 |
5%3 |
2 |
5/(-3) |
-1 |
5%(-3) |
2 |
(-5)/3 |
-1 |
(-5)%3 |
-2 |
(-5)/(-3) |
1 |
(-5)%(-3) |
-2 |
Perhaps even more importantly, I need to understand that modulo operators in other languages may not always work in a consistent way when it comes to how negative numbers are handled. Here is a great article about that:
https://torstencurdt.com/tech/posts/modulo-of-negative-numbers/
A table of results from the above article:
| Language | 13 mod 3 | -13 mod 3 | 13 mod -3 | -13 mod -3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Go | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| PHP | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Rust | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Scala | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Java | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Javascript | 1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Ruby | 1 | 2 | -2 | -1 |
| Python | 1 | 2 | -2 | -1 |