Comment by joyinsky

Besides you can write code like this

   s = {'square': lambda x: x **2, 'simple': lambda x: x, 'cube': lambda x: x ** 3}

   s.get('square', lambda x: 0)(10)
   s.get('nonexistent', lambda x: 0)(10)

Substitute lambdas for real functions and you have a powerful switch case.