Dick Moores said unto the world upon 02/21/2007 08:08 PM: > At 05:17 PM 2/21/2007, Terry Carroll wrote:
<snip> >> I like the approach of mapping hex or octal digits posted by Alan and Bob, >> but, not thinking of that, this would be my straightforward approach: >> >> def computeBin(n): >> """converts base10 integer n to base2 b as string""" >> if n == 0: return '0' >> sign = ['','-'][n<0] <snip> > > Thanks! > > But there's syntax(?) there I've never seen before. "['','-'][n<0]". > I see it works: > > >>> n = -6 > >>> ['','-'][n<0] > '-' > >>> n = 98 > >>> ['','-'][n<0] > '' > > What's this called? I'd like to look it up. Hi Dick and all, I don't know that it has a name other than `trickery!' ;-) But, if you're scratching your head over it: Python 2.4.4c1 (#2, Oct 11 2006, 21:51:02) [GCC 4.1.2 20060928 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.1-13ubuntu5)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> 1==True True >>> 0==False True >>> Best, Brian vdB _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor