Conditional answer

Ecce:

The second and third operands of the ?: operator control the type of the conditional expression. Let X and Y be the types of the second and third operands. Then,

• If X and Y are the same type, then this is the type of the conditional expression.


• Otherwise, if an implicit conversion (Section 6.1) exists from X to Y, but not from Y to X, then Y is the type of the conditional expression.


• Otherwise, if an implicit conversion (Section 6.1) exists from Y to X, but not from X to Y, then X is the type of the conditional expression.


• Otherwise, no expression type can be determined, and a compile-time error occurs.

Moral of the story: Know your language spec.