If only lambda's allowed statements :(. >>>mymap = [ lambda args: raise IndexError, lambda args: (0, args[0], 1),

If only lambda's allowed statements :(. >>>mymap = [ lambda args: raise IndexError, lambda args: (0, args[0], 1), lambda args: (args[0], args[1], 1), lambda args: args, ] That aside, this approach would be much slower too.