Making the right choice

In this example, we will use a switch case to identify the right set of configurations based upon certain input given by the user.

As a prerequisite understanding, the syntax of the exec-timeout command based upon OS is as follows:

• Cisco IOS command: exec-timeout 15 0
• Cisco NXOS command: exec-timeout 15

#create a dictionary:
config={
    "IOS":"exec-timeout 15 0",
    "NXOS":"exec-timeout 15"
    }
getchoice=input("Enter IOS type (IOS/NXOS) : ")
if (getchoice == "IOS"):
 print (config.get("IOS"))
if (getchoice == "NXOS"):
 print (config.get("NXOS"))

The sample output is as follows:

>
 Enter IOS type (IOS/NXOS) : IOS
 exec-timeout 15 0
 >>>
 Enter IOS type (IOS/NXOS) : NXOS
 exec-timeout 15
 >>>

In the preceding example, we have tackled a common challenge of using a switch case in Python. Unlike some other languages, Python does not provide a switch case statement, hence we need to use a dictionary to overcome this. Using this approach, we can remove the usage of multiple if statements and directly call the dictionary values based upon the mappings done in the dictionary.