[Python-ideas] except expression

[Ben Finney]

Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> writes:

> Ram Rachum <ram.rachum at gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Here's an idea that would help shortening code. Allow a ternary
> > expression based on except, like so:
> >
> >     first_entry = entries[0] except IndexError else None
> >     item = my_queue.get() except queue.Empty else None
> >     response_text = request('http://whatever.com').text except HttpError else "Can't access data"
>
> That is more obscure, to my eye, than laying out the control branches:

Sorry, I failed to address your first two examples.

I am +0 on the proposal to have something similar to Perl's fallback
syntax, “$foo = bar() or some_default_value”.

Yet I still find the proposed syntax less readable for anything but a
trivial *and* brief case. For anything longer than a few dozen
characters, I still prefer::

    try:
        response_text = request('http://whatever.com').text
    except HttpError:
        "Can't access data"

for being explicit and clarifying what to expect.

-- 
 \     “I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. |
  `\          There's a knob called ‘brightness’ but it doesn't work.” |
_o__)                                             —Eugene P. Gallagher |
Ben Finney