usewhether

Usewhether is a coined term used in discussions of conditional syntax in programming and computational linguistics. The name blends “use” and “whether” to describe an operator or function that selects between two values based on a boolean condition, aligning with the natural-language phrase “whether to do something.” The concept is mostly theoretical and appears in design notes and speculative language discussions rather than in mainstream language specifications.

Semantics and syntax: In its simplest form, usewhether(cond, a, b) yields a when cond is true and b when cond is false. It is functionally equivalent to a conditional expression and can be implemented as a wrapper around an if statement in many languages. Example: usewhether(is_admin, "grant access", "deny access") returns "grant access" if is_admin is true, otherwise "deny access."

Relationship and critique: Usewhether is seen by some as a readability-oriented alternative to nested if-else or explicit conditionals, aiming to mirror the natural-language inquiry about whether to take a given action. Critics argue that it adds little expressiveness and may reduce clarity in more complex conditions. In practice, it is not a standard operator in mainstream languages, but it appears in theoretical discussions of syntax design and in some domain-specific languages that emphasize declarative style.

See also: conditional expression, if-else, ternary operator, natural-language processing.