Vote on PEP 308: Ternary Operator

[Andrew Dalke]

Sabby and Tabby:
> data = (hasattr(s, 'open') and s.readlines() or s.split())
> z = 1.0 + (abs(z) < .0001 and 0 or z)
> return (len(s)<10 and linsort(s) or qsort(s))

What if s.readlines() returns [] ?

>>> import StringIO
>>> class MyStringIO(StringIO.StringIO):
...  def open(self):
...   pass
...
>>> s = MyStringIO("")
>>> data = (hasattr(s, 'open') and s.readlines() or s.split())
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
AttributeError: MyStringIO instance has no attribute 'split'
>>>

The second case with the "and 0" *always* returns 1.0 + z, as in

>>> z = 0.0001
>>> z = 1.0 + (abs(z) < .0001 and 0 or z)
>>> z
1.0001
>>>

If linsort returns None or some other false value then the
third case also my call qsort, eg, when len(s) == 0.

The and/or mechanism is not a general catch-all for a ternary
if/else operator.  It should be used judiciously, if at all.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at dalkescientific.com