For review: PEP 308 - If-then-else expression

[Andrew Koenig]

Sean> (I especially enjoyed "contrariwise" (Andrew Koenig))

Lewis Carroll, actually.  I think it's from Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Sean> Mostly, I just wanted to avoid a specific edge case someone mention much
Sean> earlier in the thread:

Sean>     if x if C else y:
Sean>         ...do stuff...

Sean> which just seemed ugly.

Agreed.  That's part of the reason I'm only +0.8 instead of +1.
But I think it's an unusual case.

Sean> But, then:

Sean>     if x when C else y:
Sean>         ...do stuff...

Sean> is only marginally less ugly.

Yes.

Sean> And, of course

Sean>     if if C then x else y:
Sean>         ...do stuff...

Sean> is worse than both.

I'm not sure, actually.  At least it alerts the reader that something
is going on :-)

Sean> Oh, and then there's

Sean>     if C ? x : y:
Sean>         ...do stuff...

Sean> or, as was proposed earlier:

Sean>     if C ? x else y:
Sean>         ...do stuff...

Sean> None of the above constructs is particularly wonderful, none is
Sean> particularly clear, and, hopefully, none of them would ever be
Sean> used. But, of those listed, I find the 'when' variant to be the
Sean> least confusing.

Tastes vary.

<<snip>>

Sean> Personally, I don't mind

Sean>  if (y, x)[C]:
Sean>     ...do stuff...

Sean> although I don't consider it to be either obvious or clear.

I *do* mind it, for two reasons:

1) It puts the false condition ahead of the true condition.

2) It evaluates both alternatives even though only one is needed.


-- 
Andrew Koenig, ark at research.att.com, http://www.research.att.com/info/ark