which way would be better?

[Skaperen]

which way would be better (WWWBB)?

1.

from stat import S_ISREG,S_ISDIR,S_ISLNK,S_ISBLK,S_ISCHR
from stat import S_ISFIFO,S_ISSOCK,S_ISPORT,S_ISDOOR,S_ISWHT

def _get_type(a):
    """Get type of file object by path."""
    try:
        s = os.stat(a)
    except FileNotFoundError:
        t='n'
    if   S_ISREG(s.st_mode):t='f'
    elif S_ISDIR(s.st_mode):t='d'
    elif S_ISLNK(s.st_mode):t='l'
    elif S_ISBLK(s.st_mode):t='b'
    elif S_ISCHR(s.st_mode):t='c'
    elif S_ISFIFO(s.st_mode):t='p'
    elif S_ISSOCK(s.st_mode):t='s'
    elif S_ISPORT(s.st_mode):t='P'
    elif S_ISDOOR(s.st_mode):t='D'
    elif S_ISWHT(s.st_mode):t='W'
    else t='?'
    return t

or...

2.

from stat import S_ISREG,S_ISDIR,S_ISLNK,S_ISBLK,S_ISCHR
from stat import S_ISFIFO,S_ISSOCK,S_ISPORT,S_ISDOOR,S_ISWHT

def _get_type(a):
    """Get type of file object by path."""
    try:
        s = os.stat(a)
        t='?'
    except FileNotFoundError:
        return 'n'
    if   S_ISREG(s.st_mode):return 'f'
    elif S_ISDIR(s.st_mode):return 'd'
    elif S_ISLNK(s.st_mode):return 'l'
    elif S_ISBLK(s.st_mode):return 'b'
    elif S_ISCHR(s.st_mode):return 'c'
    elif S_ISFIFO(s.st_mode):return 'p'
    elif S_ISSOCK(s.st_mode):return 's'
    elif S_ISPORT(s.st_mode):return 'P'
    elif S_ISDOOR(s.st_mode):return 'D'
    elif S_ISWHT(s.st_mode):return 'W'
    return '?'

and why?

could performance be considered an issue? would you code this with more spacing? ...more lines?

[deanhystad]

You don't need elif here:

    if   S_ISREG(s.st_mode):return 'f'
    elif S_ISDIR(s.st_mode):return 'd'
    elif S_ISLNK(s.st_mode):return 'l'

Use if for each test.

[snippsat]

Not fan of either ways,i would use dictionary to avoid all if,elif.

import os, sys
from stat import (
    S_ISREG, S_ISDIR, S_ISLNK, S_ISBLK, S_ISCHR,
    S_ISFIFO, S_ISSOCK, S_ISPORT, S_ISDOOR, S_ISWHT
)

def get_type(path):
    """Get type of file object by path."""
    try:
        mode = os.stat(path).st_mode
    except OSError as error :
        return error

    mode_check = {
        S_ISREG: 'regular file', S_ISDIR: 'directory', S_ISLNK: 'l',
        S_ISBLK: 'b', S_ISCHR: 'c', S_ISFIFO: 'p',
        S_ISSOCK: 's', S_ISPORT: 'P', S_ISDOOR: 'D',
        S_ISWHT: 'W'
    }
    for check, type_code in mode_check.items():
        if check(mode):
            return type_code
    return '?'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Test
    paths = [
        'G:/div_code',
        'G:/div_code/record.txt'
    ]
    for path in paths:
        print(f"The type of '{path}' is: <{get_type(path)}>")

Output:
The type of 'G:/div_code' is: <directory>
The type of 'G:/div_code/record.txt' is: <regular file>

[DeaD_EyE]

Maybe it's worth to reuse existing code ©.

import stat

from pathlib import Path


def filemode(file: str | Path) -> str:
    """
    Returns the first character from stat.filemode() call.
    If FileNotFoundError or PermissionError occurs,  `-` is returned.

    Sometimes stat.filemode() returns `-` for unknown entries.
    Maybe more investigation is required to fully understand when the - occurs.
    """
    try:
        return stat.filemode(Path(file).stat().st_mode)[0]
    except (FileNotFoundError, PermissionError):
        return "-"


path = "/dev/tty1"
print(path, filemode(path))