You may come across one-line if-statements in the wild.
In this lesson, you’ll learn the syntax of one-line if-statements and if they have any advantages or disadvantages over using multi-line if-statements.
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One-Line "if" Statements
00:00
We are moving right along! Section 3: One Liners. So, here’s the thing. It is possible to write your entire if statement on one line. And you don’t have to use these, but I wanted to leave them in because you might come across them in the wild.
00:19
So, let’s take a look at the syntax. So, a basic if statement, instead of the statement being on the second line and being indented, just follows the expression with a space between it and the colon (:).
00:34
When we want our if statement to kick off multiple statements, we set it up like this with a semicolon (;) between each statement.
00:45
When we want to use else and elif, those too get put on to single lines. And, again, if we want to run multiple statements after those, we separate them with a semicolon. So, that’s one-line syntax in a nutshell. There’s no real advantage or disadvantage to using these.
01:05 It’s purely for readability and preference, so it’s up to you. And perhaps if you’re working for a company, it could be dictated by their style guide. So, this is just something to more be aware of than, say, something dictated by universal Python law.
Bartosz Zaczyński RP Team on Nov. 7, 2025
@konstantinos Fragkos Correct, you wouldn’t typically find such code in the wild if that’s what you’re asking about.
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konstantinos Fragkos on Nov. 2, 2025
PEP 8 compatibility Its obvious won’t complain for that kind of statements, however as per my understanding is not in compliance with PEP 8. Could you please tell if this is a real world approach?