`elif` in list comprehension conditionals
Python's conditional expressions were designed exactly for this sort of use-case:
>>> l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> ['yes' if v == 1 else 'no' if v == 2 else 'idle' for v in l]
['yes', 'no', 'idle', 'idle', 'idle']
>>> d = {1: 'yes', 2: 'no'}
>>> [d.get(x, 'idle') for x in l]
['yes', 'no', 'idle', 'idle', 'idle']