Long programs using python -c switch

Question

I would like to use python for things I\'ve been doing using bash. Is it possible to use the -c switch for long programs, e.g. a for loop with two statements? This would let

Answer 1

No problem if your underlying shell is bash, since you can continue an argument across multiple lines if an opened ' (quote) is not yet closed -- e.g.:

$ python -c'for x in range(3):
>   if x!=1:
>     print x'
0
2
$

The > is bash's default PS2, the "multi-line continuation prompt", as distinguished from $, AKA PS1, the normal "start entering a command" prompt.

If you can't use such multi-line continuation, multiple nested block statements (such as an if within a loop) could otherwise be problematic.