The problem with that construct is that trueaction itself must evaluate to true, or the expression will evaluate to falseaction, which most likely is not what y

The problem with that construct is that trueaction itself must evaluate to true, or the expression will evaluate to falseaction, which most likely is not what you want: >>> 0 if 1 else 2 0 >>> 1 and 0 or 2 2 Even crazier things can happen if trueaction has side effects: >>> def trueaction(): ... print 'trueaction called' ... return 0 ... >>> def falseaction(): ... print 'falseaction called' ... return 'hello' ... >>> True and trueaction() or falseaction() trueaction called falseaction called 'hello' >>> trueaction() if True else falseaction() trueaction called 0