#ifdef python3 print_with_parantheses #else print_using_python2_style #endif

Question

Is there a way to achieve something like "conditional interpretation" in python similar to the conditional compilation c pre-processor directives allow? I would like to use the same code in Python 2.7 and Python 3, keeping the few print-s that code has right now. That is, I would like to have syntactically incorrect code not interpreted in some cases.

A simple work-around like this one:

if sys.version_info.major == 3:
    print("init message")
else:
    print "init message"

results in a "SyntaxError: invalid syntax". Is there any way to tell the interpreter to skip evaluation?

Answer 1

Use from __future__ import print_function

You can check the documentation here: future.

Answer 2

You do it differently: instead of conditional interpretation, you use a __future__ statement, by which you can write code conforming to "future" syntax and keep backwards compatible:

from __future__ import print_function

print("init message")

A future statement is a directive to the compiler that a particular module should be compiled using syntax or semantics that will be available in a specified future release of Python where the feature becomes standard.