the death of lecter

[Terry Reedy]

"Michal Wallace" <sabren at manifestation.com> wrote in message
news:Pine.BSF.4.10.10009111130480.20577-100000 at chi.pair.com...
...
>    * immediate if:
>          print 'x is', x > 0 ? 'positive' : 'negative'
...
>      # I still wish we had a ?: operator..
>      # It would be great for lambdas!

But we pretty much do, already.

print 'x is', (x>0) and 'positive' or 'negative'

or, debugged,

>>> def pr(x):
...   print 'x is', (x>0) and 'positive' or (x==0) and 'zero' or 'negative'
...
>>> pr(1)
x is positive
>>> pr(0)
x is zero
>>> pr(-1)
x is negative

The 'condition and then-expression or else-expression' construction only
fails if the then-expression evaluates as false.  If the else-expression
evaluates as true, reverse the condition.  If both are false (rare), then
use a tuple trick (in the FAQ?).  For the above,

>>> def pr(x): print 'x is', ('negative','zero','positive')[cmp(x,0)+1]
...
>>> pr(1)
x is positive
>>> pr(0L)
x is zero
>>> pr(-1.0)
x is negative

Terry J. Reedy