Using AND inside abs(number) in Python

Question

Trying to understand how AND statement works inside abs(numbers) function.

Calling print(abs(21-22 and 9-4 and 11-8))

This would always give me whatever the last expression is. In this case it calculates 11-8, so it prints 3. Why other expressions are not in the output and no error as well?

What did you *expect* from that? Why not just write `print(3)`? `a and b` is basically `b if a else a`. — jonrsharpe, Jun 01 '20 at 19:03
See the answer to [this question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47007680/how-do-and-and-or-act-with-non-boolean-values) for a good explanation. — chash, Jun 01 '20 at 19:06

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 01 '20 at 19:10

5

The fact that the expression is inside an abs call doesn't change the way that it's interpreted:

>>> 21-22 and 9-4 and 11-8
3

which is of course the same as:

>>> -1 and 5 and 3
3

An and evaluates the "truthiness" of each operand. If either of them is "falsey", that one is returned; otherwise the last one is returned.

All int values except 0 are "truthy", so the only time you'll get something other than the last value from an and of ints is if one of them is zero:

>>> -1 and 0 and 3
0

answered Jun 01 '20 at 19:10

Samwise

68,105
3
30
44

Yup. [The python docs explicitly state that](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#boolean-operations-and-or-not) `x and y` is equivalent to 'if x is false, then x, else y' – bisen2 Jun 01 '20 at 19:14

Red · Answer 2 · 2020-06-01T19:15:59.423

2

and is a logical operator, it will return True if both the operands of the operator are true.

I believe the comma does what you expected to do in this case:

print(abs(21-22),abs(9-4),abs(11-8))

edited Jun 01 '20 at 19:15

answered Jun 01 '20 at 19:07

Red

26,798
7
36
58

Using AND inside abs(number) in Python

2 Answers2