This works fine if the ? operator is right-associative, but in PHP it's left-associative and you have a subtle bug.

I find a better indendation style for this is more like

    condition
        ? truthy
        : falsy

i use that style too sometimes, depends on what's clearer. IME the former usually works better if you have a multiple tests, but the latter is the only readable option if you need to break a case across lines.

yeah, ternary-if is busted in php :/ (far from the only thing that's busted there though...) i'm actually doing some PHP work right now, and never chain ifs to avoid this exact thing.