Inline if...else Statement in Python

The if ... else statement is frequently used for evaluating conditions in many programming languages.

Python has an inline if ... else statement, which allows a compact version of the if ... else statement in a single line. Such an inline statement is restricted and can only contain multiple if ... else if they are carefully cascaded. However, they must contain the else clause; otherwise, it won’t work.

Such statements improve the readability of the code, make it shorter and cleaner, and can be used while assigning values or other functions.

In the code below, we will use it while assigning some value to a variable based on another variable’s value.

b = 5
a = 1 if b > 2 else 2
print(a)

Output:

1

Note that due to their similarity, such inline if ... else statements are considered the ternary operator in Python.

We can also use the inline if ... else statement with other functions like the print() to display something based on a condition.

a = 0
b = 2
print(a if a != 0 else b)

Output:

2

We can map multiple if ... else conditions in inline statements. For example:

b = 5
a = 1 if b == 2 else (2 if b > 3 else 3)
print(a)

Output:

2

The elif condition cannot be used in inline if ... else statement.