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Whats the right way to refactor this Big if/elif/elif ?
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Whats the right way to refactor this Big if/elif/elif ?
#1
This code is ugly and not pythonic. I am new to python not new to programming. Instead of guessing on one of many possible refectorings, could you tell me the pythonic way to do this?

As you can see a bunch of variables (forward, left, right, etc) are set up with a floating point number. I want to store in a variable "closest_dir" a string name for the variable which contained the smallest value.

forward = calc_range(msg.ranges, 359, 0, 15)
right = calc_range(msg.ranges, 270, 271, 15)
left = calc_range(msg.ranges, 90, 91, 15)
back = calc_range(msg.ranges, 180, 181, 15)
narrow_l1 = sum(msg.ranges[83:87])/5
narrow_l2 = sum(msg.ranges[88:92])/5
narrow_l3 = sum(msg.ranges[93:97])/5
narrow_r1 = sum(msg.ranges[273:277])/5
narrow_r2 = sum(msg.ranges[268:272])/5
narrow_r3 = sum(msg.ranges[263:267])/5
closest_dist = min(narrow_l1, narrow_l2, narrow_l3, narrow_r1, narrow_r2, narrow_r3,
                    forward, left, right, back)
if (closest_dist == forward):
    closest_dir = "forward"
elif (closest_dist == left):
    closest_dir = "left"
elif (closest_dist == right):
    closest_dir = "right"
elif (closest_dist == back):
    closest_dir = "back"
elif (closest_dist == narrow_l1):
    closest_dir = "narrow_l1"
elif (closest_dist == narrow_l2):
    closest_dir = "narrow_l2"
elif (closest_dist == narrow_l3):
    closest_dir = "narrow_l3"
elif (closest_dist == narrow_r1):
    closest_dir = "narrow_r1"
elif (closest_dist == narrow_r2):
    closest_dir = "narrow_r2"
elif (closest_dist == narrow_r3):
    closest_dir = "narrow_r3"
else:
    closest_dir = "bug"
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#2
The first thing I think of is to make a list like so:

dists = [(forward, 'forward'), (left, 'left'), ..., (narrow_r3, 'narrow_r3')]
dists.sort()
closest_dir = dists[0][1]
But then there is the question of building the list. Could you convert your calculations into one function with parameters?

directions = (('left', [359, 0, 15]), ('right', [270, 271, 15], ...)
distances = [(dist_calc(*parameters), direction) for direction, parameters in direction]
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