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

[holger krekel]

Andrew Koenig wrote:
> holger> What about a missing else clause? e.g. 
> 
> holger>         <expression> if <condition>
> 
> holger> Allowing it could be nice for stuff like 
> 
> holger>     result = obj(...) if callable(obj)
> 
> It's supposed to be an expression that yields a value.
> So your example would be equivalent to
> 
>             result = (obj(...) if callable(obj))
> 
> and the question is:  What is the value of (x if y) when y is false?

sorry, i also got private mail about this.  I intended 
to say that 

    result = obj() if callable(obj)

should indeed set the result to None if the condition evalutes
to false.  I don't think there is any other sensible result 
other than 'None'.  But of course, 

    result = obj() if callable(obj) else None

would be more explicit.  The question is whether my suggestion
has enough use cases and is thus practical enough.  I sometimes 
have the equivalent of this situation:

    result = obj.method(...) if someconditionalexpr(obj)
    if result is None:
        # either we don't have such a method or 
        # calling it returned None

writing it today, you'd have to say either

    result = someconditionalexpr(obj) and obj.method(...) or None
    if result is None:
        ...

which is a bit tricky to understand (and results in long lines).  
Or you could write 

    try:
        result = obj.method(...)
    except AttributeError:
        result = None
    if result is None:
        # either we don't have such a method or 
        # calling it returned None

or 

    result = getattr(obj, 'method')
    if result is not None:
        result = obj.method(...)
    if result is None:
        # either we don't have such a method or 
        # calling it returned None

but none of these solutions reads too well.  The current
constructs are an rather 'indirect' way to express this 
use case. 

However, i fear that the PEP might decrease python's readability 
and i am currently not leaning towards one way or the other. 

regards,

    holger