AngularJS/Javascript ternary operator code explanation required

Question

I saw this code in Angular Material web site :

function querySearch (query) {
      var results = query ? self.states.filter( createFilterFor(query) ) : self.states,
          deferred;
      if (self.simulateQuery) {
        deferred = $q.defer();
        $timeout(function () { deferred.resolve( results ); }, Math.random() * 1000, false);
        return deferred.promise;
      } else {
        return results;
      }
    }

Can anyone explain whats happening here ?

if query is not null we call the filter otherwise we return the states and what is that ",deffered" part ?

defered has not created yet and we can't return multiple values either!

So what is the explanation for this code ?

The code is here: https://material.angularjs.org/latest/demo/autocomplete The first one (Basic Usage)

Answer 1

This is why ternaries are bad for readability. That comma has nothing to do with the ternary, since it's attached to a variable declaration.

All this is doing is declaring the (undefined) variable deferred.

You can declare variables multiple at a time with the comma syntax like so:

var x = 4,
    y = 7,
    z = Math.random();