<p>for the following:</p>

<pre><code>( a != b ) ? cout&lt;&lt;"not equal" : cout&lt;&lt;"equal";
</code></pre>

<p>suppose I don't care if it's equal, how can I use the above statement by substituting <code>cout&lt;&lt;"equal"</code> with a no-op.</p>

This is very confusing code. You
could
just write
```
```
cond ? cout << "equal" : cout;
```
```
but you won't (will you?) because you've got conventional
```
if
```
for that.