EXP00-J. Use the same type for the second and third operands in conditional expressions

The conditional operator ?: uses the boolean value of one expression to decide which of the other two expressions should be evaluated [[JLS 05]].

The conditional operator is syntactically right-associative. For instance a?b:c?d:e?f:g is equivalent to a?b:(c?d:(e?f:g)).

The general form of a Java conditional expression is operand1 ? operand2 : operand3.

• If the value of the first operand (operand1) is true, then the second operand expression (operand2) is chosen
• If the value of the first operand is false, then the third operand expression (operand3) is chosen

The rules used by a Java compiler to determine the type of the result of a conditional expression are quite complicated and may result in unexpected type conversions. The rules used to determine the result type of a conditional expression are given in the following table, where the first matching rule, starting from the top, is used. In the table, * refers to constant expressions of type int (such as '0' or variables declared final), Operand 2 refers to operand2 in the general form of a Java conditional given above, and Operand 3 refers to operand3:

Due to the complicated nature of the rules used to determine the result type of a conditional expression and the potential for unintended type casting, it is recommended that the second and third operands of the conditional expression should always explicitly have the same type.

Noncompliant Code Example

The print statement prints the value of alpha as A, which is of the char type. The third operand '0', is a constant expression of type int whose value can be represented as a char and hence does not cause any numeric promotion. However, this behavior depends on the value of the constant integer expression. Changing the value of the constant integer expression may lead to different behavior, as will be demonstrated in the second noncompliant code example.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    System.out.print(true  ? alpha  : 0);
  }
}

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution recommends the use of the same types for the second and third operands of the conditional expressions. The clearer semantics help avoid confusion.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    // Cast 0 as a char to explicitly state that the type of the 
    // conditional expression should be char.
    System.out.print(true  ? alpha  : ((char) 0));
  }
}

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant example prints 65 instead of A.

The print statement prints 65, the integer equivalent of A. This is because of numeric promotion of the second operand alpha to an int, which happens because the third operand, the constant expression '12345', is an int that cannot be represented as a char.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    System.out.print(true  ? alpha  : 12345);
  }
}

Compliant Solution

The compliant solution casts alpha to int to explicitly state the result type of the conditional expression. Note that while casting 12345 to type char would ensure that both operands in the second nonconforming conditional expression have the same type (and result in A being printed), it would result in data loss when 12345 is converted to a char. Therefore the conforming example casts alpha to int, the wider of the operand types.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    // Cast alpha as an int to explicitly state that the type of the 
    // conditional expression should be int.
    System.out.print(true  ? ((int) alpha)  : 12345);
  }
}

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant example prints 65 instead of A.

The print statement prints 65. This is because of numeric promotion of the second operand alpha to an int, which happens because the third operand, variable i, is an int.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    int i = 0;
    System.out.print(true ? alpha : i);
  }
}

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution declares i as a char, ensuring that the second and third operands of the conditional expression have the same type.

public class Expr {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char alpha = 'A';
    char i = 0;        //declare as char
    System.out.print(true ? alpha : i);
  }
}

Risk Assessment

If the types of the second and third operands in a conditional expression are not the same then the result of the conditional expression may be unexpected.

Automated Detection

TODO

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

References

[[JLS 05]] Section 15.25, Conditional Operator ? :
[[Bloch 05]] Puzzle 8: Dos Equis

03. Expressions (EXP)      03. Expressions (EXP)      EXP01-J. Ensure a null pointer is not dereferenced