Can I use the following as an alternative to the conditional operator in Python?

Question

I have found that the following code works like the conditional operator in Python.

num1 = condition and val1 or val2

Could I use it in place of the following?

num1 = val1 if condition else val2

• Aran-Fey: ...why would you want to use that unreadable thing instead of a conditional?
• Andrei Berenda: you can do it, but it is not python way

Answer 1

The first code you propose does not behave always as the second since, here a counter example where condition is true, val1 is 0 and val2 is 2

num1 = True and 0 or 2

num1 is equal to 2 after the assignment because 0 is evaluated as false in the context of a logical expression. In the second code the result would be 0 instead.

Answer 2

I would advise you against it for two reasons.

1. If conditional statement clearly conveys your intent, which helps with readability of your code.
2. That behaviour may not be consistent across different python versions (past or future) and you risk breaking your code in very subtle ways if you use this.

Answer 3

No you can't. It won't work correctly if val1 is falsy:

>>> 0 if True else 1
0
>>> True and 0 or 1
1