How does lambda x: (x % 2 and 'odd' or 'even') work

Asked Jan 17 '20 at 14:53

Active Jan 17 '20 at 19:53

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I was learning about lambda functions, and saw this example. I cannot understand how, 'odd', or 'even' is selected.

print((lambda x: (x % 2 and 'odd' or 'even'))(3))

returns odd

print((lambda x: (x % 2 and 'odd' or 'even'))(4))

returns even

edited Jan 17 '20 at 19:53

asked Jan 17 '20 at 14:53

dKenez

1

I didn't know about that but googling it, it Iooks like it is a ShortHand Ternary expression : look at [ShortHand Ternary (at the end)](https://book.pythontips.com/en/latest/ternary_operators.html) – Clément Jan 17 '20 at 14:58
Both snippets are the same, they both return `odd`; but that just as an aside…You could type those snippets in little by little and see how they work. What do you get for `1 and 'odd'`? `0 and 'odd'`? – deceze Jan 17 '20 at 15:02
1

It's a terribly clever (i.e. really bad) way to write `'odd' if x % 2 else 'even'`. – tobias_k Jan 17 '20 at 15:03
Thank you all very much! The link proved really helpful. – dKenez Jan 17 '20 at 20:08

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