Why not 'foo = not f' instead of 'foo = (not f or 1) and 0'?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:30:28 +0000, Duncan Booth wrote:

> Kristian Domke <news at neither-nor.net> wrote:
> 
>> foo = (not f and 1) or 0
>> 
>> In this case f may be None or a string.
>> 
>> If I am not wrong here, one could simply write
>> 
>> foo = not f
>> 
>> 
> Yes, it sounds pretty silly, and not just on the level you spotted.
> 
> The only difference between the two expressions is that the original
> sets foo to an integer whereas your version sets it to a bool. So the
> question of which is most appropriate actually comes down to what foo is
> being used for.


But since Python bools are subclasses from int, both of them are actually 
ints. One happens to look like 1, and the other looks like True.



-- 
Steven