[Python-ideas] Combining test and assignment

[Terry Reedy]

On 1/22/2012 7:04 AM, Paul Moore wrote:
> On 22 January 2012 04:51, Steven D'Aprano<steve at pearwood.info>  wrote:
>> Assignment as an expression feels unnatural to me:
>>
>> if spam() as x != 'ham':
>>     frobulate(x)
>>
>> doesn't really correspond to any natural English order.

The best I can come up with is "if x, which is the result of calling 
'spam', is not equal to 'ham', then frobulate x". But I am not going to 
call that 'natural' speech. More normal would be "Get the result of 
spam(). If it it not 'ham', then frobulate it." As others noted, the 
pronoun 'it' is a substitute for local names. But doing that for more 
than one object or value gets awkward. "Get ham() and spam(). If the 
first is less than the second, multiply the first by the second plus 3." 
"Former' and 'latter' are another pair of standardized pronoun-like 
names. The math device  of temporary names is really handy.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy