On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 16:15:42 +0000, Joe Stevenson wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I skimmed through the docs for Python, and I did not find anything like
> a case or switch statement. I assume there is one and that I just
> missed it. Can someone please point me to the appropriate document, or
> post an example? I don't relish the idea especially long if-else
> statements.
I don't relish the idea of especially long case statements.
I've never understood why something like:
if x = 5:
do_this
elif x = 6:
do_that
else:
do_something_else
is supposed to be "bad", but
case of:
x = 5:
do_this
x = 6:
do_that
otherwise:
do_something_else
is supposed to be "good".
(Choose whatever syntax you prefer for case statements, the principle
remains.)
Arguably, a case statement *might* allow the compiler to optimize the
code, maybe, sometimes. But in general, no such optimization is possible,
so a case statement is merely equivalent to a series of if...elif...
statements.
There is no case statement in Python. If you don't care about
readability, one alternative is to use a dictionary:
case = {5: do_this, 6: do_that}
case.get(x, do_something_else)()
--
Steven.
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