jQuery $.data() conditional statement

Question

I'm using the html5 "data" attribute on a element, and I want to assign the attribute value to a variable only if it exists and if it's not empty:

var xxx = $(this).data('what') ? $(this).data('what') : 'default_value';

but it doesn't work. I always get the default value...

Answer 1

Using a short circuit is simpler and more efficient:

var xxx = $(this).data('what') || 'default_value';

But your code should have worked anyway, assuming the data existed (as the commenter noted).