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Proposed PEP for a Conditional Expression

Markus Schaber markus at schabi.de
Mon Sep 17 11:01:29 EDT 2001 
Hi,

Michael Chermside <mcherm at destiny.com> schrub:

>      def f(a,b=1):
>          x = a > 0: return a else return b
>          return x ** 2 - 1
> 
> Apparently Markus's syntax implies that after a colon appearing in a
> statement (as opposed to other, normal :'s in Python), the "return"
> keyword no longer means to return from a function.

Yes, but I wanted to always have brackets "()" around it (just as we 
have the [] around the list comprehension)

          x = (a > 0: return a else return b)

Currently, return and : both can't appear inside of (), and so it 
should be clear which return is meant.

> Markus... did I mis-interpret? Do you still think this is a useful
> syntax?

My objection to this would be that it is too much to type, and that's 
why I made a second proposal some lines later.

I'm rather shure that it is impossible to invent conditional expressios 
without redefining something or inventing new keywoards or symbols.

And in my case I define new meanings for :, else and (in the first 
proposal) return in a context where they are illegal now, so it 
shouldn't break any existing code.

markus

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