[Tutor] How to run same lines of code in different order at runtime

[George]

Hello,

I have done little piece of work for finding nearest shortest route from 
one point on a graph to other with connected points(cities to be 
precise).  The way i achieved it is by getting the nearest neighbours in 
(NE, NE, SE, SW) and then traversing them one by one until i reach my 
destination in the first instance of recursion. this thing works for me 
and i am not looking for route solving problems but rather a peculiar 
problem of running different lines of code arbitarily.

The problem with my coding is that it follows a strict route search 
algorithm that i hardcoded i.e.
it first searches NE, then NW, then SE, and finally SW.  this code will 
always find a route but will not be the shortest route which could 
either start from any direction.  So i have to devise a way by which i 
can run all the posibilities to find the best route. so i have to run 
4*3*3*3 runs to find out the shortest route.  My code is as below, any 
way i can achieve it in python without typing all the posibilites.


def GetShortestRoute(source:list,destination:City,recursion=0):
     print("recursion",recursion)
     #print(source)
     assert type(source)==list,"Source must be a list of list"
     assert len(source)>0,"Source must contain atleast 1 item"
     assert type(source[0])==list,"Sub items of source must be a list"

     #debug
     for route in source:
         print (route)
     #end Debug

     #found something
     foundlist=[]
     for miniroute in source:
         if destination in miniroute:
             print("found",destination," in ",miniroute,":", destination 
in miniroute)
             foundlist.append(miniroute)
         else:
             print("Not found",destination," in ",miniroute,":", 
destination in miniroute)

     #print ("length of found list",len(foundlist),foundlist)

     #retun the shortest amongst the find
     shortestRoute=[None,9999999.9]
     if len(foundlist)>0:
         for miniroute in foundlist:
             #print("shortest distance",shortestRoute[1])
             distance=calculateRouteDistantce(miniroute)
             #print("distance calculated",distance)
             if distance<shortestRoute[1]:
                 shortestRoute[1]=distance
                 shortestRoute[0]=miniroute
         return shortestRoute


     #not found
     duplicatesource=source[:]
     for route in source:
         lastCity=route[len(route)-1]
	
	#the part i do not want to recode everytime to find the shortest route
         if lastCity.NE!=None and 
isCityInRouteList(lastCity.NE,source)==False:
             tmproute=route[:]
             tmproute.append(lastCity.NE)
             if tmproute not in duplicatesource:
                 duplicatesource.append(tmproute)

         if lastCity.NW!=None and 
isCityInRouteList(lastCity.NW,source)==False:
             tmproute=route[:]
             tmproute.append(lastCity.NW)
             if tmproute not in duplicatesource:
                 duplicatesource.append(tmproute)

         if lastCity.SE!=None and 
isCityInRouteList(lastCity.SE,source)==False:
             tmproute=route[:]
             tmproute.append(lastCity.SE)
             if tmproute not in duplicatesource:
                 duplicatesource.append(tmproute)

         if lastCity.SW!=None and 
isCityInRouteList(lastCity.SW,source)==False:
             tmproute=route[:]
             tmproute.append(lastCity.SW)
             if tmproute not in duplicatesource:
                 duplicatesource.append(tmproute)
	#end of the part

     return GetShortestRoute(duplicatesource,destination,recursion+1)

Thanks

George