Smith, Jeff wrote:
IMHO, if/elif/else statements are far more abused than either switch or ternary but I certainly wouldn't argue they should be removed from the language.
IMHO, if it's true that if/elif/else statements are more abused than ternaries, then it's only because they're *used* far more often than ternaries. I'd say that the percentage of uses which could count as abuse is *far* higher for ternary than for if/elif/else.
And I avoid (and recommend against) Python's "a and b or c" trick for similar reasons -- it *is* a trick. A 'real' ternary operator is confusing enough; this trick is more readable (words instead of opaque symbols) but more difficult to write correctly given the constraints on 'a'...
Maybe I'm just weird, but I just don't find so much benefit to putting *everything* in-line. Occassionally it improves readability, but more often it obscures and obfuscates.
Jeff Shannon Technician/Programmer Credit International
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