can any one explain this

[venkat kaka]

hi i cant understand last line in the following code . can any one explain brefily
public static String removeLeadingZeros(String str){
if (str == null) {
return EaglelinkConstants.EMPTY_SPACE ;
}
char[] chars = str.toCharArray();
int length = str.length();
double value = Double.parseDouble(str);
int index =0;
if(value/10 != 0){
for (; index < length; index++) {
if (chars[index] != '0') {
break;
}
}
}else{
return str;
}
return (index == 0) ? str : str.substring(index);// this line i need explanation.
}
}
what is ? there and what it returns

[Yogesh Baraskar]

this is a ternary if operator

[Freddy Wong]

It's a shorthand for this code.

    
if (index == 0)
{
    return str;
} 
else
{
    return str.substring(index);
}

[adam Lui]

it looks so absurd but it is totally legal.

[Akhilesh Trivedi]

Originally posted by adam lui:
it looks so absurd but it is totally legal.

...and just like if-else-if-else. They can be nested as well. On one side it aids writability on the other language's readability suffers.

[Xyz Abc]