print("odd" if num % 2 else "even")
That's the native python version, for those curious
this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
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The ternary syntax is really my only real gripe with python design -- putting the conditional BETWEEN the true and false values feels so very messy to me.
It's kinda natural to me having used Perl a lot.
That's not quite the argument you might think it is
You clearly haven't used Perl a lot. Perl's ternary looks like:
$even = $num % 2 ? "nay" : "yay";
Incidentally, it is also the same as PHP's, but mainly because PHP stole it.
You do get the if in the middle of stuff though in the form print(debug message) if $debug
Wait until you learn that postfix conditionals are syntactic sugar and the compiler* turns that line into the equivalent of $debug and print(debug message), putting the conditional in first place, a lot like the ternary operator.
* Perl compiles to bytecode before running.
The ternary operator itself isn't implemented in terms of and (and or) but it could be.
Luckily I don't need to read or write bytecode and all that matters to me is the syntax
perl -e 'print "fart\n" if 1;'
That's way too non-convoluted enough
Python is kinda like that in general, unless you try to make it read like ass
You would not believe the number of people I’ve interviewed who excel at making Python read like ass.
I mean, it does have enough ways to write the same thing that it can really allow for some funny code golf, but some people just have no sense of readability whatsoever.
Clearly an inferior language. /s
Why is the return first?
I think the idea is it reads more naturally, so you can read it like this return A if statement is true else return B
Yep, it's this
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Edit... I reread your comment and realized that python does it differently and that everything I typed was irrelevant... I'm still gonna leave it if anyone is interested in ternary expressions, but I suppose the answer to your question is, that's just how python does it.
That's how ternary operators are designed to work. In essence, if you're looking to do a single line if/then, you can directly assign a variable from the result of a ternary expression.
As an example, I was scripting something earlier where there may or may not be a value returned from a function, but I still had to do something with that return value later. For this thing, I was using JavaScript.
I ended up with:
return platform == "name" ? "Option 1" : "Option 2"
If I were to write that out in a typical if/then it would be:
if (platform == "name") {
return "option 1"
} else {
return "option 2"
}
A ternary starts with a boolean expression, then the if true value, else the false value. That's returned to either a variable or if in a function like my example, to the object calling the function. It's just a way to write less code that in many cases is easier to read.
Oh wow, I think I hate that... Condition between the results? Yuck.
Please. That's C's ternary operator. JS is just a pile of garbage cosplaying as a programming language
Why do you say it's a pile of garbage?
Because of all the garbage
Clearly the garbage collector is too effective
No they're not supposed to be piling it up
Is a garbage collector not a garbage disposal. Smh.
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print( ["even", "odd"][num % 2] )
If you need to avoid evaluating the wrong branch:
print( [lambda: "even", lambda: "odd"][num % 2]() )
Just send pseudo code to AI and compile straight to binary.
Peak programming
Yeah... I played that "serial killer or programming language inventor" game.
The only one I was completely in disagreement with was the inventor of Python. He's definitely a mass-murderer
Are you sure it isn't just that he's Dutch?
I love something = condition and result1 or result2 in lua
Python does that, too.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#boolean-operations-and-or-not
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often I do a function called elvis XD with the next signature elvis(condition, res1, res2)
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