Question

I’ve recently learned that python doesn’t have the switch/case statement. I’ve been reading about using dictionaries in its stead, like this for example:

values = { 
     value1: do_some_stuff1, 
     value2: do_some_stuff2, 
     valueN: do_some_stuffN,
}
values.get(var, do_default_stuff)()

What I can’t figure out is how to apply this to do a range test. So instead of doing some stuff if value1=4 say, doing some stuff if value1<4. So something like this (which I know doesn’t work):

values = { 
     if value1 <val: do_some_stuff1, 
     if value2 >val: do_some_stuff2, 
}
values.get(var, do_default_stuff)()

I’ve tried doing this with if/elif/else statements. It works fine but it seems to go considerably slower compared to the situation where I don’t need the if statements at all (which is maybe something obvious an inevitable). So here’s my code with the if/elif/else statement:

if sep_ang(val1,val2,X,Y)>=ROI :
    main.removeChild(source)
elif sep_ang(val1,val2,X,Y)<=5.0:
    integral=float(spectrum[0].getElementsByTagName("parameter")[0].getAttribute("free"))
    index=float(spectrum[0].getElementsByTagName("parameter")[0].getAttribute("free"))              
    print name,val1,val2,sep_ang(val1,val2,X,Y),integral,index
    print >> reg,'fk5;point(',val1,val2,')# point=cross text={',name,'}'
else:
    spectrum[0].getElementsByTagName("parameter")[0].setAttribute("free","0") #Integral
    spectrum[0].getElementsByTagName("parameter")[1].setAttribute("free","0") #Index
    integral=float(spectrum[0].getElementsByTagName("parameter")[0].getAttribute("free"))
    index=float(spectrum[0].getElementsByTagName("parameter")[0].getAttribute("free"))
    print name,val1,val2,sep_ang(val1,val2,X,Y),integral,index
    print >> reg,'fk5;point(',val1,val2,')# point=cross text={',name,'}'

Which takes close to 5 min for checking about 1500 values of the var sep_ang. Where as if I don’t want to use setAttribute() to change values in my xml file based on the value of sep_ang, I use this simple if else:

if sep_ang(val1,val2,X,Y)>=ROI :
    main.removeChild(source)
else:
    print name,val1,val2,ang_sep(val1,val2,X,Y);print >> reg,'fk5;point(',val1,val2,')# point

Which only takes ~30sec. Again I know it’s likely that adding that elif statement and changing values of that attribute inevitably increases the execution time of my code by a great deal, I was just curious if there’s a way around it.

Edit:
Is the benefit of using bisect as opposed to an if/elif statement in my situation that it can check values over some range quicker than using a bunch of elif statements?

It seems like I’ll still need to use elif statements. Like this for example:

range=[10,100]
options='abc' 
def func(val)
     return options[bisect(range, val)]
if func(val)=a:
     do stuff
elif func(val)=b:
     do other stuff
else:
     do other other stuff

So then my elif statement are only checking against a single value.

Thanks much for the help, it’s greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Finally figured out what to do!

So instead of using a bunch of elif statements I did this:

range=[10,100]
options='abc' 
def func(val)
     choose=str(options[bisect(range,val)])
     exec choose+"()"
def a():
      do_stuff
def b():
      do_other_stuff
def c():
      do_other_other stuff

Not only does it work but it goes almost as fast as my original 4 line code where I’m not changing any values of things!