[Python-ideas] [Fwd: Re: exception based conditional expression, similar to if-else conditional expression]

[Jeff McAninch]

Jim Jewett wrote:
>
> Probably, but you don't have to use a comprehension.
>
> def g(seq):
>     for e in seq:
>         try:
>             yield float(e)
>         except:
>             pass # whatever, even skipping the element
>
> If you don't need it in generator form, then just collect the results
> into a list and return that instead of yielding.  (And obviously, that
> for loop doesn't even have to be in a separate (generator or) function
> at all.)
>
> -jJ
>   
Certainly there are a number of ways to address this without using an 
exception conditional expression.  But it seems each of these would lead 
to a proliferation of these special functions, as one tries to flexibly 
address the different exception-value pairs that would be applied to 
different operations.

I could for instance define the function Except:

    def Except ( seq, nominal_function, function_lookup ):
        for e in seq:
            try:
               yield nominal_function(e)
            except:
               (exception_type,exception_message) = sys.exc_info()[:2]
               if (exception_type in function_lookup):
                   yield function_lookup[exception_type](e)
               else:
                   raise exception_type, exception_message

Then I could write my simple example as:
    xs = Except( ys, (lambda x: float(x)), {ValueError: (lamba x: 
float('nan'))} )

So I agree, the behaviour can be produced with the language as-is.  But 
many of the evolutions in the language were not put in to address things 
that "can't be done", but rather to let them be done in a more concise, 
robust, and/or elegant way.

-- 
==========================
Jeffrey E. McAninch, PhD
Physicist, X-2-IFD
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Phone: 505-667-0374
Email: mcaninch at lanl.gov
==========================