[Tutor] Impossible Else as Exception

[Dave Angel]

On 04/10/2013 02:18 AM, Jordan wrote:
> Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions.  I have never used an
> assertion, before so I will read up on the concept.


One comment about assertion.  Even though an optimized run will ignore 
the assertion itself, it can save a (small) amount of time avoiding any 
other overhead "preparing" for the assertion.  So I'd make your if/elif 
logic something like this:



if condition == 1:
     do something with 1
else:   #Note, condition must be 2, unless something above is flawed
     assert(condition==2, "Condition must be 1 or 2, something's wrong")
     do something with 2


One more comment I didn't notice anybody else point out.  Many times, 
instead of hoping the code remains consistent, you can make it much more 
likely by changing types.  For example, instead of naming the conditions 
1 and 2, name then True and False.  Now, the test becomes:

if condition:
     do something with 1
else:
     do something with 2

This isn't as perfect an answer as with typed languages, because 
somebody can slip in some other type.

-- 
DaveA