Question

Is it possible to include the operator in a variable when evaluating a condition. Like this:

>>> one = 1
>>> two = 2
>>> lessthan = '<'

>>> if one lessthan two: print 'yes'

is there a way to return the variable during the expression? I have also tried to return it via a function.

def operator(op):
    return op

if one operator(lessthan) two: print 'yes'

Many thanks,

Answer 1

You could use operator:

import operator

lessthan = operator.lt

one = 1
two = 2

if lessthan(one, two):
    print 'yes'

You could also make a mapping between strings and operations:

operators = {
    '<': operator.lt,
    '>': operator.gt,
    '>=': operator.ge,
    '<=': operator.le,
}

And then call the function:

>>> operators['<'](123, 456)
True