Simon Forman wrote:
Hey I was hoping to get your opinions on a sort of minor stylistic point. These two snippets of code are functionally identical. Which would you use and why? The first one is easier [for me anyway] to read and understand, but slightly less efficient, while the second is [marginally] harder to follow but more efficient.## First snippet if self.higher is self.lower is None: return if self.lower is None: return self.higher if self.higher is None: return self.lower ## Second snippet if self.higher is None: if self.lower is None: return return self.lower if self.lower is None: return self.higher What do you think?
Explicit is always better, `return None` when that is your intent. `return` shouts to the reader, "I want to get out of this function now, and no one cares about the return result."
Personally, I only use the one-liner if/else clauses if it's an extremely trivial condition, and even then, usually not there. (The only place I use it consistently is `if __name__ == '__main__': main()`.) If it's part of something more important that needs inspection -- as this obviously does given the questions you've had about it, doesn't skip space. Newlines are free.
Even when expanding about the first test, there's no reason to do chained `if`s. One `if` with an `and` works just fine.
Paul Rubin's looked to be the best overall replacement, as the logic here looks strangely turned inside out. You're obviously looking for which one _isn't_ `None`, so write the tests that way. It's much easier for everyone else (including your potential future self) to follow.
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