Programmatically generate if elif elif elif else
<p>I would like to condense some wet code that looks like this:</p>

<pre><code>if slips[i] &lt; 3000:
    ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], 0, 0, 0)
    # setBackgroundOpacity deliberately omitted here
elif slips[i] &lt; 3700:
    ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], .2, .4, .2)
    ac.setBackgroundOpacity(wheel['slip'], 1)
elif slips[i] &lt; 4100:
    ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], 0, 1, 0)
    ac.setBackgroundOpacity(wheel['slip'], 1)
elif slips[i] &lt; 4500:
    ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], 0, 0, 1)
    ac.setBackgroundOpacity(wheel['slip'], 1)
else:
    ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], 1, 0, 0)
    ac.setBackgroundOpacity(wheel['slip'], 1)
</code></pre>

<p>Each time this snippet of code is repeated, the only things that change are the background canvas (<code>wheel['slip']</code> in this case), and the numbers in the if elif else's.</p>

<p>My first thought to dry this up was to make something that could be used like this:</p>

<pre><code>if_replacer(wheel['slip'], slips[i], 3000, 3700, 4100, 4500)

def if_replacer(canvas, value, *args):
    # idunno
</code></pre>

<p>My question is, how would I programmatically generate the if elif else's? I know I could hard-code it like so:</p>

<pre><code>def if_replacer(canvas, value, c1, c2, c3, c4):
    if value &lt; c1:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(canvas, 0, 0, 0)
        return
    elif value &lt; c2:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(canvas, .2, .4, .2)
    elif value &lt; c3:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(canvas, 0, 1, 0)
    elif value &lt; c4:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(canvas, 0, 0, 1)
    else:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(canvas, 1, 0, 0)
    ac.setBackgroundOpacity(canvas, 1)
</code></pre>

<p>But I'm interested if there is a succinct and Pythonic method to accomplish this.</p>

<p>edit: A lot of excellent answers, but alas I can only mark one of them as accepted (though all valid solutions were upvoted). I accepted the answer that I implemented in my code, but for anyone else who stumbles across this question, do take a look at the other solutions, they're all excellent. And, thanks to everyone who wrote an answer.</p>

<p>In case 'setBackgroundOpacity' was omitted by mistake or it doesn't matter if it is included in the first case as well, this is a solution you might be looking for:</p>

<pre><code>color_map = [ (3000, 0, 0, 0), 
              (3700, .2, .4, .2), 
              (4100, 0, 1, 0), 
              (4500, 0, 0, 1), 
              (10**10, 1, 0, 0) ]

for i, (c, r, g, b) in enumerate(color_map):
    if value &lt; c:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], r, g, b)
        if i &gt; 0:
            ac.setBackgroundOpacity(wheel['slip'], 1)
        break
</code></pre>

<p>Edit: saw the comment about the setBackgroundOpacity function</p>

<p>Edit2: Fixed the typo and added an alternative solution to 10**10 </p>

<pre><code>color_map = [ (3000, 0, 0, 0), 
              (3700, .2, .4, .2), 
              (4100, 0, 1, 0), 
              (4500, 0, 0, 1), 
              (float("inf"), 1, 0, 0) ]

for i, (c, r, g, b) in enumerate(color_map):
    if value &lt; c:
        ac.setBackgroundColor(wheel['slip'], r, g, b)
        if i &gt; 0:
            ac.setBackgroundOpacity(wheel['slip'], 1)
        break
</code></pre>

python if-statement dry