The “if statement” in Python does this specifically by testing whether a statement is true, and then executing a code block only if it is. In other words: “IF this is true, THEN do this.” ...

You can think of match statements as “Switch 2.0”. Before we get into the nitty-gritty here, if all you want is switch in Python then you’re in luck, because they can be used in the same way.

Any valid Python statement can be executed in the context of the module currently running by prefixing it with an exclamation point. For the above example, at the pdb prompt, you could type !x=100 ...

The earlier story provided a close brush with Python statements – you saw assignments, tests and loops. And what is being manipulated isn’t your common or garden variables.

In contrast, you need to indent Python statements properly, or your program won’t run. You can use tabs or spaces, or even mix the two, but you have to be consistent.

Matching against variables with Python structural pattern matching An important note is worth bringing up here. If you list variable names in a case statement, that doesn’t mean a match should ...

In a contribution to the US PyCon Language Summit this week, van Rossum posted a document on Microsoft-owned GitHub, first spotted by The Register, detailing some of his ambitions to make Python a ...