# Ternary operator ?: confused with quoting

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ternary-operator-confused-with-quoting/24536>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [May 23, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ternary-operator-confused-with-quoting/24536 "2019-05-23T18:59:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![isamuelsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/isamuelsson/32/8854_2.png) [@isamuelsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/isamuelsson)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ternary-operator-confused-with-quoting/24536/1 "2019-05-23T18:59:32Z")

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Hi I am doing the pi exercise in JuliaBox and would like to know how I could use the ternary operator ( a ? b : c ) correctly. Any suggestions?

function calculate\_pi(N,r)  
Acircle = 0  
Asquare = 0

```
for x in 1:N    
    x,y = rand([-1:1]), rand([-1:1])

    dist = sqrt(x^2 + y^2)

    dist < r ? Acircle++ : Asquare++
end
return 4*(Acircle/Asquare)

```

end

N = 1000  
r = 1  
calculate\_pi(N, r)

ERROR  
syntax: space not allowed after “:” used for quoting

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yuyichao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yuyichao/32/20_2.png) [@yuyichao](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yuyichao)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ternary-operator-confused-with-quoting/24536/2 "2019-05-23T19:08:14Z")

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Afaict, (didn’t check) this is because ++ is a binary operator so the parsing continues to consume : and what’s after it as the second operand of ++

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![isamuelsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/isamuelsson/32/8854_2.png) [@isamuelsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/isamuelsson)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ternary-operator-confused-with-quoting/24536/3 "2019-05-23T19:30:08Z")

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thank you!