cascading python executions only if return code is 0

[Rick Johnson]

On Sunday, December 22, 2013 12:37:04 PM UTC-6, Frank Cui wrote:
> I have a requirement where I need to sequentially execute
> a bunch of executions, each execution has a return code.
> the followed executions should only be executed if the
> return code is 0. is there a cleaner or more pythonic way
> to do this other than the following ?
>
> if a() == 0:
>     if b() == 0:
>         c()

Hello Frank.

I kindly request that you be more specific when asking
questions. Both your question and your example code contain
too many ambiguities.

I'm still not sure what exact outcome you wish to achieve,
the only certainty is that you wish to perform a linear
execution of "N" members with later executions being affected
by earlier executions.

Whether you want executions to proceed on failure or proceed
on success is unclear. Here are a few explicit pseudo code
examples that would have removed all ambiguities:

    if fails(a()):
        if fails(b()):
            c()

    if succeeds(a()):
        if succeeds(b()):
            c()

Or if you prefer a purely OOP approach:

    a.foo()
    b.foo()
    if a.failed:
        if b.failed:
            c.foo()

    a.foo()
    b.foo()
    if a.succeeded:
        if b.succeeded:
            c.foo()

or you could simplify using a logical one liner:

    if !a() and !b() then c()
    if a() and b() then c()

Of course you could use the "all" function

    if all(a(), b()):
        c()
    if not any(a(), b()):
        c()

But this "all" depends whether you're testing for success or
testing for failure, and that point is a distant third from
my desperate need of understanding your semantics of "what"
values are *true* and "what" values are *false*.

I think (sadly) more time is spent attempting to interpret
what an OP is asking rather than attempting to provide a
solution to the problem the OP is suffering, and whilst any
problem solving adventure is likely to improve our
intelligence, fumbling about attempting to decode
ambiguities is indeed time that could have been better spent
IF ONLY the speaker (or writer) had put a small bit more
effort into the question.

Look Frank, nobody is perfect, we all need to improve our
skills here or there. So don't be offended that my
statements are, well,... "frank".