How to do this in Python...

[Peter Hansen]

Michael Tiller wrote:
> 
> I'm puzzled by what seems like a missing piece of functionality in Python.
... 
> In C++, I could write a statement like this:
> 
> if (match=re.match(pattern, string))
>   // do something with the match object
> 
> But I cannot figure out how to do the equivalent thing in Python.  The idea
> here is to have an assignment statement within an if statement so that I
> don't have to call match twice or obfuscate the code.  It seems to me that
> my current options are:
> 
> match = re.match(pattern, string)
> if match:
>   // do something with match object
> 
> -or-
> 
> if re.match(pattern, string):
>     match = re.match(pattern, string)
> 
> The first one seems unnecessarily verbose and the second one is inefficient.
> Are there any other options?

Yes, the third option is this: get rid of the urge to do this, and
the belief that it is a good idea.

Such structures have long been fertile ground for bugs in C and
its children, and reduce the readability of code.  The "functionality"
you want is actually a deprecated feature in some companies, where
assignment-tests like that are outlawed in if/for/while statements.

If you can start to think in this style, your code will become more
readable and you'll have fewer concerns about "missing" functionality
in Python.

-Peter