Does Python have a ternary conditional operator?

Question

If Python does not have a ternary conditional operator, is it possible to simulate one using other language constructs?

Answer 1

YES, python have a ternary operator, here is the syntax and an example code to demonstrate the same :)

#[On true] if [expression] else[On false]
# if the expression evaluates to true then it will pass On true otherwise On false


a= input("Enter the First Number ")
b= input("Enter the Second Number ")

print("A is Bigger") if a>b else print("B is Bigger")

Answer 2

You might often find

cond and on_true or on_false

but this lead to problem when on_true == 0

>>> x = 0
>>> print x == 0 and 0 or 1 
1
>>> x = 1
>>> print x == 0 and 0 or 1 
1

where you would expect for a normal ternary operator this result

>>> x = 0
>>> print 0 if x == 0 else 1 
0
>>> x = 1
>>> print 0 if x == 0 else 1 
1

Answer 3

In [1]: a = 1 if False else 0

In [2]: a
Out[2]: 0

In [3]: b = 1 if True else 0

In [4]: b
Out[4]: 1

Answer 4

Ternary conditional operator simply allows testing a condition in a single line replacing the multiline if-else making the code compact.

Syntax :

[on_true] if [expression] else [on_false]

1- Simple Method to use ternary operator:

# Program to demonstrate conditional operator
a, b = 10, 20
# Copy value of a in min if a < b else copy b
min = a if a < b else b
print(min)  # Output: 10

2- Direct Method of using tuples, Dictionary, and lambda:

# Python program to demonstrate ternary operator
a, b = 10, 20
# Use tuple for selecting an item
print( (b, a) [a < b] )
# Use Dictionary for selecting an item
print({True: a, False: b} [a < b])
# lamda is more efficient than above two methods
# because in lambda  we are assure that
# only one expression will be evaluated unlike in
# tuple and Dictionary
print((lambda: b, lambda: a)[a < b]()) # in output you should see three 10

3- Ternary operator can be written as nested if-else:

# Python program to demonstrate nested ternary operator
a, b = 10, 20
print ("Both a and b are equal" if a == b else "a is greater than b"
        if a > b else "b is greater than a")

Above approach can be written as:

# Python program to demonstrate nested ternary operator
a, b = 10, 20
if a != b:
    if a > b:
        print("a is greater than b")
    else:
        print("b is greater than a")
else:
    print("Both a and b are equal") 
# Output: b is greater than a

Answer 5

For versions prior to 2.5, there's the trick:

[expression] and [on_true] or [on_false]

It can give wrong results when on_true has a false boolean value.¹
Although it does have the benefit of evaluating expressions left to right, which is clearer in my opinion.

_{1. Is there an equivalent of C’s ”?:” ternary operator?}

Answer 6

Ternary Operator in different programming Languages

Here I just try to show some important difference in ternary operator between a couple of programming languages.

Ternary Operator in Javascript

var a = true ? 1 : 0;
# 1
var b = false ? 1 : 0;
# 0

Ternary Operator in Ruby

a = true ? 1 : 0
# 1
b = false ? 1 : 0
# 0

Ternary operator in Scala

val a = true ? 1 | 0
# 1
val b = false ? 1 | 0
# 0

Ternary operator in R programming

a <- if (TRUE) 1 else 0
# 1
b <- if (FALSE) 1 else 0
# 0

Ternary operator in Python

a = 1 if True else 0
# 1
b = 1 if False else 0
# 0

Now you can see the beauty of python language. its highly readable and maintainable.