Python 3.8: definition with if/else condition and return/yield (always returns a generator)

[Python 3.8 | Spyder]

I was trying to introduce a simple definition that would either return [1,2,3] or yield the numbers sequentially.

The minimum working code is as follows:

def example(condition):
    if condition:
        yield 1
        yield 2
        yield 3
    else:
        return [1,2,3]

If one attempts to use the def, it will always return a generator. Even if the return appears first in the if/else pair:

def example(condition):
    if not condition:
        return [1,2,3]

    else:
        yield 1
        yield 2
        yield 3

It seems python is not ignoring the presence of the yields even if condition = False. This is an unexpected behaviour.