CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Alxe
Alxe

Reputation: 391

Pythonic way of returning None if input itself is None?

What's the best way to write a null-check in Python? Try-Except blocks, if blocks...?

Given a function that returns None if the input is None, a valid input, what's the best approach to deal with this situation? Take this function for example:

def urlify(path):
    if path is None:
        return None

    return "<a href=\"{0!s}\">{0!s}</a>".format(path)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 996

Answers (1)

Moses Koledoye
Moses Koledoye

Reputation: 78546

You could use a ternary operator with the return statement to return None if path is None or return something else otherwise. 

def urlify(path):
    return path if path is None else "<a href=\"{0!s}\">{0!s}</a>".format(path)

However considering functions return None by default, you can simply do:

def urlify(path):
    if path is not None:
        return "<a href=\"{0!s}\">{0!s}</a>".format(path)

Or as vaultah suggested in the comments, you could also short-circuit using and.

Upvotes: 4

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