question of style

[Kee Nethery]

the fact that you felt compelled to explain the "one minor point" in  
the first snippet tells me that the second snippet does not need that  
explanation and will be easier for someone (like you for example) to  
maintain in the future.
Second snippet would be my choice.
Kee Nethery

On Jul 2, 2009, at 10:23 AM, Simon Forman wrote:

> Hey I was hoping to get your opinions on a sort of minor stylistic
> point.
> These two snippets of code are functionally identical. Which would you
> use and why?
> The first one is easier [for me anyway] to read and understand, but
> slightly less efficient, while the second is [marginally] harder to
> follow but more efficient.
>
> ## First snippet
>
> if self.higher is self.lower is None: return
> if self.lower is None: return self.higher
> if self.higher is None: return self.lower
>
> ## Second snippet
>
> if self.higher is None:
>    if self.lower is None:
>        return
>    return self.lower
> if self.lower is None:
>    return self.higher
>
> What do you think?
>
> (One minor point: in the first snippet, the "is None" in the first
> line is superfluous in the context in which it will be used, the only
> time "self.lower is self.higher" will be true is when they are both
> None.)
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list




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