[Python-Dev] (try-except) conditional expression similar to (if-else) conditional (PEP 308)

[Dj Gilcrease]

I figure I would write up the PEP draft, I have never tried writing a
pep before, but i did read PEP 1 and tried to follow it's formating
guides. If there are no additions to the idea, then it seems there
just needs to be a consensus on the syntax before submitting it to the
peps list

I posted this to the python-ideas version of this thread already, but
since more people seem to be posting to the python-dev list I will
post it here as well

 PEP: <pep number>
 Title: try-except conditional expressions
 Version: <svn version string>
 Last-Modified: <svn date string>
 Author: Jeff McAninch <mcaninch at lanl.gov>, Dj Gilcrease
<digitalxero at gmail.com>
 Discussions-To: python-ideas at python.org
 Status: Draft
 Type: Standards Track
 Content-Type: text/plain
 Created: 06-Aug-2009
 Python-Version: 2.7/3.2
 Post-History: <dates of postings to python-list and python-dev>

Abstract:
   I very often want something like a try-except conditional
   expression similar to the if-else conditional instead of resorting
   to a multi-line try-except block.

Design Goals:
   The new syntax should
       * Be simple to read
       * Be intuitive so people who may use it infrequently dont need
           to go lookup the format every time
       * Make it obvious what is happening

Modivation:
   Often when doing calculations or string recasting (to int, float,
   etc) it is required to wrap the section in a simple try-except
   where the exception just assigns a default value. It would be more
   readable and consise if these type of try-excepts could be written
   on a single line.

Issues:
   Unknown

Specification:
   All 3 components would just be ordinary expressions. The exception
   definition would be allowed to resolve to a single exception or a
   tuple of exceptions, just as it is in a normal try/except
   statement.

Syntax Ideas:
   Option 1:
       x = float(string) except float('nan') if ValueError
       op(float(string) except float('nan') if ValueError)

   Option 2:
       x = float(string) except ValueError: float('nan')
       op(float(string) except ValueError: float('nan'))

   Option 3:
       x = float(string) except ValueError else float('nan')
       op(float(string) except ValueError else float('nan'))