The ternary operator

One last thing I would like to show you, before moving on to the next subject, is the ternary operator or, in layman's terms, the short version of an if/else clause. When the value of a name is to be assigned according to some condition, sometimes it's easier and more readable to use the ternary operator instead of a proper if clause. In the following example, the two code blocks do exactly the same thing:

# ternary.py
order_total = 247  # GBP 
 
# classic if/else form 
if order_total > 100: 
    discount = 25  # GBP 
else: 
    discount = 0  # GBP 
print(order_total, discount) 
 
# ternary operator 
discount = 25 if order_total > 100 else 0 
print(order_total, discount) 

For simple cases like this, I find it very nice to be able to express that logic in one line instead of four. Remember, as a coder, you spend much more time reading code than writing it, so Python's conciseness is invaluable.

Are you clear on how the ternary operator works? Basically, name = something if condition else something-else. So name is assigned something if condition evaluates to True, and something-else if condition evaluates to False.

Now that you know everything about controlling the path of the code, let's move on to the next subject: looping.