# Bug in Challenge: Use Multiple Conditional (Ternary) Operators

**URL:** <https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444>\
**Category:** Curriculum Help\
**Tags:** javascript\
**Created:** [May 22, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444 "2020-05-22T04:11:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boscojfelix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/boscojfelix/32/184766_2.png) [@boscojfelix](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/boscojfelix)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/1 "2020-05-22T04:11:47Z")

</div>

**Tell us what’s happening:**  
Bug - Test for below code fails with error: checkSign should use multiple conditional operators.

**Your code so far**

```js

function checkSign(num) {
return (num!==0) ? (num>0) ? "positive" 
  : "negative" 
  : "zero";
}

console.log(checkSign(10));
console.log(checkSign(-1));
console.log(checkSign(0));

```

**Your browser information:**

User Agent is: `Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.132 Safari/537.36 OPR/67.0.3575.97`.

**Challenge:** Use Multiple Conditional (Ternary) Operators

**Link to the challenge:**

> **[freeCodeCamp.org](https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/javascript-algorithms-and-data-structures/basic-javascript/use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators)**
>
> Learn to Code — For Free

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Naomi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/naomi/32/422181_2.png) [@Naomi](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/Naomi)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/2 "2020-05-22T04:20:44Z")

</div>

> [@boscojfelix](#):
>
> (num!==0) ? (num\>0) ? “positive”

It doesn’t like this line.

```auto
return (conditional operator) ? result
   : conditional operator ? result
   : result

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kerafyrm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/13edae/32.png) [@kerafyrm](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/kerafyrm)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/3 "2020-05-22T04:23:27Z")

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Too funny. FCC enforces ‘strict mode’ to get users to write better code but teaches multiple ternary operators.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boscojfelix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/boscojfelix/32/184766_2.png) [@boscojfelix](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/boscojfelix)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/4 "2020-05-22T04:23:47Z")

</div>

I think the challenge fails to check for Ternary operators in statement-if-true part of Ternary operator.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyLT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/jeremylt/32/291894_2.png) [@JeremyLT](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/JeremyLT)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:27am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/5 "2020-05-22T04:27:59Z")

</div>

Multiple ternaries can be useful in specific circumstances and they can be clearer than multiple if statements in some cases.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyLT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/jeremylt/32/291894_2.png) [@JeremyLT](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/JeremyLT)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:39am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/6 "2020-05-22T04:39:11Z")

</div>

The challenge gave you an expected format for your multiple ternary. Does the test pass if you change your code to match the described best practice format?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kerafyrm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/13edae/32.png) [@kerafyrm](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/kerafyrm)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/7 "2020-05-22T04:43:02Z")

</div>

```auto
const checkSign = (num) => ['zero', 'negative', 'positive'][(num**2 > 0) + (num > 0)];

```

This is a lot cleaner. I never use multiple ternary. Just bad programming.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boscojfelix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/boscojfelix/32/184766_2.png) [@boscojfelix](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/boscojfelix)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/8 "2020-05-22T04:43:55Z")

</div>

Yes, Sir. The test pass if I change my code to match the described best practice format.

```auto
function checkSign(num) {

  return (num===0) ? "zero"

    :(num>0) ? "positive" 

    : "negative" ;

}

console.log(checkSign(10));

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyLT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/jeremylt/32/291894_2.png) [@JeremyLT](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/JeremyLT)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/9 "2020-05-22T04:51:47Z")

</div>

That’s terrible for clarity (in my opinion), but it gets props for looking clever.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyLT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/jeremylt/32/291894_2.png) [@JeremyLT](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/JeremyLT)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:53am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/10 "2020-05-22T04:53:09Z")

</div>

Huzzah. I’m glad to have helped.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boscojfelix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/boscojfelix/32/184766_2.png) [@boscojfelix](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/boscojfelix)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:59am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/11 "2020-05-22T04:59:46Z")

</div>

I think there must also be clarity in the error message displayed by the challenge. Sir.

Instead of Error: “checkSign should use multiple conditional operators.”

Using multiple ternary operators in statement-if-true part of ternary operator is not best practice.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyLT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/jeremylt/32/291894_2.png) [@JeremyLT](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/JeremyLT)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/12 "2020-05-22T05:03:30Z")

</div>

That’s fair. If you like, you can post this as an issue on the Free Code Camp GitHub, or I can. Describing issues is a good skill to practice but I don’t mind writing it up either.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boscojfelix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/boscojfelix/32/184766_2.png) [@boscojfelix](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/boscojfelix)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/13 "2020-05-22T05:12:46Z")

</div>

I think the work of the developer is to develop. If I post this issue on Free Code Camp GitHub, I get a feeling of developing something Sir.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boscojfelix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/boscojfelix/32/184766_2.png) [@boscojfelix](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/boscojfelix)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/14 "2020-05-22T05:43:08Z")

</div>

Posted the [Issue on Free Code Camp GitHub](https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp/issues/38872) Sir.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeremyLT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/jeremylt/32/291894_2.png) [@JeremyLT](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/JeremyLT)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:45am UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/15 "2020-05-22T05:45:18Z")

</div>

Huzzah. It’s good to be part of the community.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ILM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/freecodecamp/user_avatar/forum.freecodecamp.org/ilm/32/363239_2.png) [@ILM](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/u/ILM)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 12:53pm UTC](https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/bug-in-challenge-use-multiple-conditional-ternary-operators/392444/16 "2021-06-01T12:53:44Z")

</div>

Closed on June 1, 2021, 12:53pm UTC