<p>I want to write a function in Python that returns different fixed values based on the value of an input index.  </p>

<p>In other languages I would use a <code>switch</code> or <code>case</code> statement, but Python does not appear to have a <code>switch</code> statement.  What are the recommended Python solutions in this scenario?</p>

The original answer below was written in 2008. Since then, Python 3.10 (2021) introduced the
```
match
```
-
```
case
```
statement which provides a first-class implementation of a "switch" for Python. For example:
```
```
def f(x):
    match x:
        case 'a':
            return 1
        case 'b':
            return 2
        case _:
            return 0   # 0 is the default case if x is not found
```
```
The
```
match
```
-
```
case
```
statement is considerably more powerful than this simple example.
You could use a dictionary:
```
```
def f(x):
    return {
        'a': 1,
        'b': 2,
    }[x]
```
```