[anthonyb]

The way I would do it is to push the processing out to functions, too. Something like:

  verdict = get_verdict(the_thing)
  if verdict not in blessedsolutions:
      return

I'd advise against running returns onto the same line - I find it makes it harder to read, particularly when you have a lot of checks like this.

[Luyt]

"The way I would do it is to push the processing out to functions, too."

This is indeed a good idea to isolate code away, but wouldn't alleviate a deeply nested control structure. It would make it somewhat more easier to look at, though.

"I'd advise against running returns onto the same line "

I usually follow PEP8 and place returns and continues on the next line, but the code examples I posted earlier had to be a bit condensed to conserve screen space, that's why ;-)

[anthonyb]

Sometimes your problem space is really just that complex, in which case there's not much you can do, short of writing some sort of business rules engine.