sprintf in python (not strictly django, but used all the time in django webapps)

[Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]]

So, just out of curiosity, how many other people didn't realise you
could do this:

>>> print '%(language)s has %(number)03d quote types.' % \
... {"language": "Python", "number": 2}

Instead of this:

print "%s has %03d" % ( "python", "2" )

6 years of python development, and I never found this little beauty. Fail.

Hope this helps someone else.

Cal

[Tim Chase]

On 10/20/11 13:17, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd] wrote:
> So, just out of curiosity, how many other people didn't realise you
> could do this:
>
>>>> print '%(language)s has %(number)03d quote types.' % \
> ... {"language": "Python", "number": 2}
>
>
> Instead of this:
>
> print "%s has %03d" % ( "python", "2" )

Also very useful in translations where the order of the pieces
may have to change, allowing the translator to put them where
needed rather than constraining the translator to the order in
which the data is passed.

-tkc

[Bill Freeman]

And fantasticly useful when a given value is needed more than once
in a string, or when you have a collection of available values and a
passed in or chosen format string, such that some values may not
be used at all.

[Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]]

Damn right - too many times have my sprintf's ended up looking so ugly
- it was borderline bad code.

Goes to show, no matter how long you've used something, even if it's
day in day out, there's always something new to learn!

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[Venkatraman S]

I use a similar thingy for the ORM queries. Named arguments help in good readability, especially in complex queries.

-V
http://blizzardzblogs.blogspot.com/

[Tom Evans]

Crikey, if you didn't know about that one, you probably don't know
about this one either:

>>> fmt = "{} shalt thou not count, neither count thou {}, excepting that thou then proceed to {}. {} is right out!"
>>> fmt.format('four', 'two', 'three', 'five')
'four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that
thou then proceed to three. five is right out!'

http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#format-string-syntax

Cheers

Tom

[Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]]

You're correct :L

Thanks for this - I think I might replace my daily break with random Python docs pages, rather than 'theregister' for a few weeks!

Cal

[Derek]

Those can be a bit dry... for some variety, you could also try Doug
Hellman's excellent "Module of the Week":
http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/

On Oct 24, 4:11 pm, "Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]"

<cal.leem...@simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:
> You're correct :L
>
> Thanks for this - I think I might replace my daily break with random Python
> docs pages, rather than 'theregister' for a few weeks!
>
> Cal
>