Question

Hello Python experts,

I am wondering if there is any shorter way to assign a value “A” to a variable if “A” is True (i.e. exists) and “B” if not.

Suppose I have:

mydict = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'banana', 'c': 'Cherry'}

Then, as I understand, the shortest (well, one-line) way of assigning a value that does not exist as a key in this mydict var is:

myvar = mydict['m'] if 'm' in mydict else 'Melon'

But is there any shorter way of doing this?

In Ruby, I would go like this:

myvar = mydict[:m] || 'Melon'

Just wondering. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

In this particular case (getting an item from a dictionary), there’s a shortcut available – the get method, which allows a default value.

myvar = mydict.get('m', 'Melon')