The ternaery operator

[William Mayor]

> 
> I think it would be nice to have a way of getting the 'true'
> value as the return with an optional value if false.  The desire
> comes about when the thing I'm comparing is an element of a collection:
> 
>        drugs['choice'] if drugs['choice'] else 'pot'
> 
> Then I'm tempted to do:
> 
> 	chosen = drugs['choice']
> 	chosen if chosen else 'pot'
> 
> I sometimes feel like doing:
> 
> 	drugs['choice'] else 'pot'
> 

For the case where the element in the collection exists, but might be falsey you could do:

	drugs[‘choice’] or ‘pot'

The ternary operator would be useful for something like:

	drugs[‘choice’] if is_good_for_you(drugs[‘choice’]) else ‘nice cup of tea’

Most of the time I avoid the ternary stuff though, I don’t think it’s easy to read, no matter what language you’re writing in.