python - Calculate RGB value for a range of values to create heat map

Question

I am trying to create a heat map with python. For this I have to assign an RGB value to every value in the range of possible values. I thought of changing the color from blue (minimal value) over green to red (maximal value).

The picture example below explains how I thought of the color composition: We have a range from 1 (pure blue) to 3 (pure red), 2 is in between resembled by green.

I read about linear interpolation and wrote a function that (more or less) handles the calculation for a certain value in the range between a minimum and a maximum and returns an RGB tuple. It uses if and elif conditions (which does not make me completely happy):

def convert_to_rgb(minimum, maximum, value):
    minimum, maximum = float(minimum), float(maximum)    
    halfmax = (minimum + maximum) / 2
    if minimum <= value <= halfmax:
        r = 0
        g = int( 255./(halfmax - minimum) * (value - minimum))
        b = int( 255. + -255./(halfmax - minimum)  * (value - minimum))
        return (r,g,b)    
    elif halfmax < value <= maximum:
        r = int( 255./(maximum - halfmax) * (value - halfmax))
        g = int( 255. + -255./(maximum - halfmax)  * (value - halfmax))
        b = 0
        return (r,g,b)

However I wonder if one could write a function for each color value without using if conditions. Does anybody have an idea? Thank you a lot!

Answer 1

def rgb(minimum, maximum, value):
    minimum, maximum = float(minimum), float(maximum)
    ratio = 2 * (value-minimum) / (maximum - minimum)
    b = int(max(0, 255*(1 - ratio)))
    r = int(max(0, 255*(ratio - 1)))
    g = 255 - b - r
    return r, g, b