Question

I find myself repeating this a lot:

val = x if x else y

Sometimes x goes several levels deep into a class or dictionary so it gets very long:

val = obj.elements[0].something if obj.elements[0].something else y

It looks ugly and forces me to type a lot more. Any known ways to shorten this? Perhaps a builtin like this exists?

val = first_try(x, y)

I guess I could easily write my own but was hoping for a built in.

first_try = lambda x,y: x if x else y

Answer 1

The or operator returns the first argument that converts to True:

val = x or y

E.g.:

>>> None or 'OK'
'OK'