[Tutor] A Question about coding style

[Cameron Simpson]

On 17Sep2021 07:05, Manprit Singh <manpritsinghece at gmail.com> wrote:
>If I have to write a program, that allows the user to input a number 
>and
>assign it to a variable b, if the number entered is a negative number,
>assign 0 to variable b.
>At last print the value of variable b. The code that i have written is
>given below:
>
>b = int(input("Enter a  number"))
>if b < 0: b = 0
>print(b)
>
>See the whole if statement part is written in single line, is it acceptable
>?

The purpose of style is readability, for yourself and others.

Is it still readable? For a very short statement, probably yes.
If it a significant win over a 2 line if-statement? Maybe, maybe not.  
The 2 line form makes it quite obvious that there is an if-statement 
there.

Is it acceptable? That depends on the coding style in your organisation 
(which can, of course, be just you).

>Second example is of a for loop, which is also written in single line
>for i in range(6): print(i)   # print values from 0 to 5,is it also
>acceptable ?

Same criteria: Very short things: maybe. Is it a gain in readability?  
Maybe not?

This style is uncommon. On a personal basis I tend to use styles like 
this if I have several very short test/action pairs. Example:

    for x, y, z in some-3-tuples...:
        if x < 0: x = 0
        if y > 5: y = 6
        if y + z > 10: z /= 2

If there's a little collection of these it _can_ be useful to flatten 
them to one line. Particularly if you're trying to get them well defined 
as a group that fits in a vertical space.

But if they're mixed:

    for x, y, z in some-3-tuples...:
        if x < 0: x = 0
        if y > 5:
          call_something()
          y = 6
        if y + z > 10: z /= 2

I might find the visual variation annoying.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>