C# 9 Target-typed Conditional Expressions

C# 9 brings also some improvements with target-typed conditional operators, such as ternary statements. The goal of this new feature is to create a better conversion from expressions.

Let's consider the following conditional expression.

condition ? expr1 : expr2

You can see there is no common type between two expressions when they are evaluated, or, in the case that there is a common type for one of the expressions, but there is no implicit cast for the type.

Let's consider the following example.

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var status = true;
    Print(status ? 1 : 2);
}

private static void Print(long number)
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", number.GetType(), number);
}

In the above code, the Print() method is executed and passed the 1 or 2 depending on the value of the status variable, but in this case, it will be 1.

Now if you change the Print() method signature by replacing the long with short as shown below.

private static void Print(short number)
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", number.GetType(), number);
}

Now you will see the following error.

CS1503	Argument 1: cannot convert from 'int' to 'short'

In the C # 9 specification, this problem is solved. So the following code is completely valid and will resolve correctly.

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var status = true;
    Print(status ? 1 : 2);
}

private static void Print(short number)
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", number.GetType(), number);
}

Similarly, if the Print() method has a parameter of type long, it will also be resolved correctly.