Question mark and colon in JavaScript

It is called the Conditional Operator (which is a ternary operator).

It has the form of: condition ? value-if-true : value-if-false
Think of the ? as "then" and : as "else".

Your code is equivalent to

if (max != 0)
  hsb.s = 255 * delta / max;
else
  hsb.s = 0;

Properly parenthesized for clarity, it is

hsb.s = (max != 0) ? (255 * delta / max) : 0;

meaning return either

• 255*delta/max if max != 0
• 0 if max == 0

This is probably a bit clearer when written with brackets as follows:

hsb.s = (max != 0) ? (255 * delta / max) : 0;

What it does is evaluate the part in the first brackets. If the result is true then the part after the ? and before the : is returned. If it is false, then what follows the : is returned.