of course, changing nn's to: def getOutcomes(myList=[2,5,8,3,5]): low_id = int(myList[0]>myList[1]) amountToShare = 2*myList[low_id] remainder = myList[not low_id]-myList[low_id] tail=list(myList[2:]) outcomes = [[amountToShare*perc, remainder+amountToShare*(1-perc)]+ tail for perc in (1.0, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.0)] if not low_id else [[remainder+amountToShare*perc, amountToShare*(1-perc)]+ tail for perc in (1.0, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.0)] return outcomes
works, just hides the ugliness in a more compact form -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
