Python: most idiomatic way to convert None to empty string?

Question

What is the most idiomatic way to do the following?

def xstr(s):
    if s is None:
        return \'\'
    else:
        return s

s = xstr(a) + xstr(b)
         


        

Answer 1

Probably the shortest would be str(s or '')

Because None is False, and "x or y" returns y if x is false. See Boolean Operators for a detailed explanation. It's short, but not very explicit.