What does this line mean in verilog?

Question

From http://www.johnloomis.org/digitallab/lcdlab/lcdlab3/lcdlab3.qdoc.html

How can I change DATA_BUS so that it is not using inout.

// BIDIRECTIONAL TRI STATE LCD DATA BUS

assign DATA_BUS = (LCD_RW_INT? 8'bZZZZZZZZ: DATA_BUS_VALUE)

Answer 1

This is a continuous assign statement to DATA_BUS using a ternary operator.

assign DATA_BUS = (LCD_RW_INT? 8'bZZZZZZZZ: DATA_BUS_VALUE)

The ternary operator could be thought of as a mini if-else statement. In english it could be translated like so assuming LCD_RW_INT is a 1 bit flag:

if LCD_RW_INT == 1'b1: 
    DATA_BUS = 8'bZZZZZZZZ 
else: 
    DATA_BUS = DATA_BUS_VALUE