something like "if" that returns a value?

[Paul Rudin]

>>>>> "hk" == holger krekel <pyth at devel.trillke.net> writes:

 hk> Paul Rudin wrote:
 >>  I'm having a little play with python, just to try it out; and one
 >> thing that I find I miss from other languages is something like
 >> lisp's if:
 >> 
 >> (if x y z)
 >> 
 >> which returns y if x is true and z otherwise.
 >> 
 >> I realise that I can define a function that does this for me; but
 >> is there a succinct way of expressing this in the base language?

 hk> for me

 hk>   x and y or z

 hk> basically does what you want.  But you *need* to be sure that 'y'
 hk> is true.  some people don't like this 'abuse' but many use it on
 hk> a regular basis (without big problems i'd say).

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, there are circumstances where this looks ok; but I'm a bit uneasy
with this idiom. The main problems being:

- (as you say) you need to depend on the value of y;

- potentially both y and z are evaluated; and

- there's a degree of obfuscation here, the code is less
  comprehensible than something like: if x then y else z.

-- 
I am a jelly donut.  I am a jelly donut.