Need help understanding conditional statement syntax

Question

Can anyone describe, what the colon and question mark syntax between the two methods is for?

public PageReference initialize() {
        String profileId = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('profileId');
        return profileId == null ? initializeView() : initializeUpdate();
 }

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

This is just another syntax for creating an IF() statement. It is known as a ternary conditional operation. Take a look here for some more info on boolean and conditional statements.

THIS

return (profileId == null) ? initializeView() : initializeUpdate();

Says the same thing as THIS

if(profileId == null){
   return initializeView();
} else {
   return initializeUpdate();
} 

Just helps save some code statements and makes the code a bit more readable.