How to create an 'empty if statement' in python

Question

It\'s very common in C: hacking \'empty if statement\' like this:

if(mostlyhappencondition)
    ;#empty statement
else{
    dosomething;
}

Answer 1

No, that won’t improve performance. In fact, it doesn’t in C, either. Where did you hear that?

not/! reads better and should have more or less the same speed.

---

And actually tested with gcc -O4:

#include 

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    for(int i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++) {
        if(!(i < 900000000)) {
            putchar('.');
        }
    }
}

vs.

#include 

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    for(int i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++) {
        if(i < 900000000);
        else {
            putchar('.');
        }
    }
}

#1 took 6.62 seconds and #2 took 6.64 seconds on my computer.