Equivalent code for this line?

Question

What is the equivalent to ---> String ss = s[i][j] == null ? "" : s[i][j];
I have no idea what ---> ? "" : s[i][j] means. My friend added this to my nested loop for it too work. Is there another equivalent way of doing this that is understandable to the intermediate programmer. Thanks in Advance.
Here is my code:
     protected void printTable (String[][] s, PrintStream ps)
          int[] maxLen = new int[s[0].length];
          for (int c = 0; c < s[0].length; c++)
               maxLen[c] = 0;
               for (int r = 0; r < s.length; r++)
                    String ss = s[r][c] == null ? "" : s[r][c];
                    maxLen[c] = Math.max (maxLen[c], ss.length ());
          for (int i = 0; i < s.length; i++)
               for (int j = 0; j < s.length; j++)
                    String ss = s[i][j] == null ? "" : s[i][j];
                    ps.print (ss);
                    for (int k = ss.length (); k <= maxLen[j]; k++)
                         ps.print (" ");
               ps.println ();
          ps.println ();

Answer 1

String ss = s[j] == null ? "" : s[j];It does this,
String ss;
if (s[j] == null)
   ss = "";
else
   ss = s[j];