Python has had awesome string formatters for many years but the documentation on them is far too theoretic and technical. With this site we try to show you the most common use-cases covered by the and style string formatting API with practical examples.
If not otherwise stated all examples work with Python 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 without requiring any additional libraries or monkey-patching.
Further details about these two formatting methods can be found in the official Python documentation:
If you want to contribute more examples, feel free to create a pull-request on !
Table of Contents:
Basic formatting
Simple positional formatting is probably the most common use-case. Use it if the order of your arguments is not likely to change and you only have very few elements you want to concatenate.
Since the elements are not represented by something as descriptive as a name this simple style should only be used to format a relatively small number of elements.
Old
'%s %s' % ('one', 'two')
New
'{} {}'.format('one', 'two')
Output
one two
Old
'%d %d' % (1, 2)
New
'{} {}'.format(1, 2)
Output
1 2
With new style formatting it is possible (and in Python 2.6 even mandatory) to give placeholders an explicit positional index.
This allows for re-arranging the order of display without changing the arguments.
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
New
'{1} {0}'.format('one', 'two')
Output
two one
Value conversion
The new-style simple formatter calls by default the method of an object for its representation. If you just want to render the output of str(...) or repr(...) you can use the !s or !r conversion flags.
In %-style you usually use %s for the string representation but there is %r for a repr(...) conversion.
Setup
class Data(object): def __str__(self): return 'str' def __repr__(self): return 'repr'
Old
'%s %r' % (Data(), Data())
New
'{0!s} {0!r}'.format(Data())
Output
str repr
In Python 3 there exists an additional conversion flag that uses the output of repr(...) but usesascii(...) instead.
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
Setup
class Data(object): def __repr__(self): return 'r?pr'
New
'{0!r} {0!a}'.format(Data())
Output
r?pr r\xe4pr
Padding and aligning strings
By default values are formatted to take up only as many characters as needed to represent the content. It is however also possible to define that a value should be padded to a specific length.
Unfortunately the default alignment differs between old and new style formatting. The old style defaults to right aligned while for new style it's left.
Align right:
Old
'%10s' % ('test',)
New
'{:>10}'.format('test')
Output
test
Align left:
Old
'%-10s' % ('test',)
New
'{:10}'.format('test')
Output
test
By argument:
In the previous example, the value '10' is encoded as part of the format string. However, it is possible to also supply such values as an argument.
Old
'%*s' % ((- 8), 'test')
New
'{:<{}s}'.format('test', 8)
Output
test
Again, new style formatting surpasses the old variant by providing more control over how values are padded and aligned.
You are able to choose the padding character:
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
New
'{:_<10}'.format('test')
Output
test______
And also center align values:
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
New
'{:^10}'.format('test')
Output
test
Truncating long strings
Inverse to padding it is also possible to truncate overly long values to a specific number of characters.
The number behind a . in the format specifies the precision of the output. For strings that means that the output is truncated to the specified length. In our example this would be 5 characters.
Old
'%.5s' % ('xylophone',)
New
'{:.5}'.format('xylophone')
Output
xylop
By argument:
Old
'%.*s' % (7, 'xylophone')
New
'{:.{}}'.format('xylophone', 7)
Output
xylopho
Combining truncating and padding
It is also possible to combine truncating and padding:
Old
'%-10.5s' % ('xylophone',)
New
'{:10.5}'.format('xylophone')
Output
xylop
Numbers
Of course it is also possible to format numbers.
Integers:
Old
'%d' % (42,)
New
'{:d}'.format(42)
Output
42
Floats:
Old
'%f' % (3.141592653589793,)
New
'{:f}'.format(3.141592653589793)
Output
3.141593
Padding numbers
Similar to strings numbers can also be constrained to a specific width.
Old
'%4d' % (42,)
New
'{:4d}'.format(42)
Output
42
Again similar to truncating strings the precision for floating point numbers limits the number of positions after the decimal point.
For floating points the padding value represents the length of the complete output. In the example below we want our output to have at least 6 characters with 2 after the decimal point.
Old
'%06.2f' % (3.141592653589793,)
New
'{:06.2f}'.format(3.141592653589793)
Output
003.14
For integer values providing a precision doesn't make much sense and is actually forbidden in the new style (it will result in a ValueError).
Old
'%04d' % (42,)
New
'{:04d}'.format(42)
Output
0042
Signed numbers
By default only negative numbers are prefixed with a sign. This can be changed of course.
Old
'%+d' % (42,)
New
'{:+d}'.format(42)
Output
+42
Use a space character to indicate that negative numbers should be prefixed with a minus symbol and a leading space should be used for positive ones.
Old
'% d' % ((- 23),)
New
'{: d}'.format((- 23))
Output
-23
Old
'% d' % (42,)
New
'{: d}'.format(42)
Output
42
New style formatting is also able to control the position of the sign symbol relative to the padding.
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
New
'{:=5d}'.format((- 23))
Output
- 23
Named placeholders
Both formatting styles support named placeholders.
Setup
data = {'first': 'Hodor', 'last': 'Hodor!'}
Old
'%(first)s %(last)s' % data
New
'{first} {last}'.format(**data)
Output
Hodor Hodor!
.format() also accepts keyword arguments.
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
New
'{first} {last}'.format(first='Hodor', last='Hodor!')
Output
Hodor Hodor!
Getitem and Getattr
New style formatting allows even greater flexibility in accessing nested data structures.
It supports accessing containers that support __getitem__ like for example dictionaries and lists:
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
Setup
person = {'first': 'Jean-Luc', 'last': 'Picard'}
New
'{p[first]} {p[last]}'.format(p=person)
Output
Jean-Luc Picard
Setup
data = [4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42]
New
'{d[4]} {d[5]}'.format(d=data)
Output
23 42
As well as accessing attributes on objects via getattr():
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
Setup
class Plant(object): type = 'tree'
New
'{p.type}'.format(p=Plant())
Output
tree
Both type of access can be freely mixed and arbitrarily nested:
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
Setup
class Plant(object): type = 'tree' kinds = [{'name': 'oak'}, {'name': 'maple'}]
New
'{p.type}: {p.kinds[0][name]}'.format(p=Plant())
Output
tree: oak
Datetime
Additionally new style formatting allows objects to control their own rendering. This for example allows datetime objects to be formatted inline:
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
Setup
from datetime import datetime
New
'{:%Y-%m-%d %H:%M}'.format(datetime(2001, 2, 3, 4, 5))
Output
2001-02-03 04:05
Custom objects
The above example works through the use of the __format__() magic method. You can define custom format handling in your own objects by overriding this method. This gives you complete control over the format syntax used.
This operation is not available with old-style formatting.
Setup
class HAL9000(object): def __format__(self, format): if (format == 'open-the-pod-bay-doors'): return "I'm afraid I can't do that." return 'HAL 9000'
New
'{:open-the-pod-bay-doors}'.format(HAL9000())
Output
I'm afraid I can't do that.