[exebook]

I guess while Python interprets this branchless code it still can do some branching? Or am I missing something here?

[juliusgeo]

There are some provisos to the “Branchless” tag that are covered in the article I drew inspiration from. One of which is that a “CMOVE” is not technically a branch :)

[yarg]

You have to do some really weird shit if you want generalised branchless ternary statements.

    begin += (arr[step+begin] < value)?step:0;

Something like:

    int mask = ((arr[step + begin] - value) >> 31);    //Depends on signed shift
    begin += (step & mask) | (0 & ~mask);

(Obviously in this case, it's simplifiable.)