How do I add these numbers?

Question

I have three variables

a == 5
b == +
c == 9

b can be +, -, / or *

Can I do something like
answer = a (b) c
which will do the sum 5 + 9

I know I can use

if b == "+":
answer = a + b
elif b == "-':
........

but it takes lots of code if I add more numbers and symbols

Any ideas???

Answer 1

You can use switch for a slightly lighter synthax. Oh wait, python doesn't have switch.

You can otherwise make a dictionary with "+", "-", etc. as keys and the corresponding functions (from the operator module) as values.

import operator

def do_op(a, op, b):
ops = {'+': operator.add,
'-': operator.sub,
'*': operator.mul,
'/': operator.truediv}
return ops[op](a, b)

print(do_op(15, "+", 27))

Answer 2

print(eval(str(a)+b+str(c)))