Cheat sheet for "new style" string formatting in Python 2.6.

format-python2.6.md

Cheat sheet for "new style" string formatting in Python 2.6. It is modified version of examples from http://pyformat.info/ Difference is that simplest sytaxt ( '{}'.format('foo') ) does not work in Python 2.6 and you need to specify value index for each value ( '{0}'.format('foo') ).

Format:

'{1} {0}'.format('one', 'two')

Align right:

'{0:>10}'.format('test')

Align left:

'{0:10}{1}'.format('test', '...')

Align by argument:

'{0:<{1}s}'.format('test', 8)

Truncate:

'{0:.5}'.format('xylophone')

Trucate by argument:

'{0:.{1}}'.format('xylophone', 7)

Combining truncating and padding

'{0:10.5}'.format('xylophone')

Number:

'{0:d}'.format(42)

Floats:

'{0:f}'.format(3.141592653589793)

Padding numbers

'{0:4d}'.format(42)
'{0:06.2f}'.format(3.141592653589793)
'{0:04d}'.format(42)

Signed numbers

'{0:+d}'.format(42)
'{0: d}'.format(-23)
'{0:=5d}'.format(-23)

Named placeholders

data = {
    'first': 'Hodor',
    'last': 'Hodor!',
}
'{first} {last}'.format(**data)
'{first} {last}'.format(first="Hodor", last="Hodor!")

Getitem and Getattr

person = {
    'first': 'Jean-Luc',
    'last': 'Picard',
}
'{p[first]} {p[last]}'.format(p=person)

data = [4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42]
'{d[4]} {d[5]}'.format(d=data)

class Plant(object):
    type = "tree"
'{p.type}'.format(p=Plant())

class Plant(object):
    type = "tree"
    kinds = [{
        'name': "oak",
    }, {
        'name': "maple"
    }]
'{p.type}: {p.kinds[0][name]}'.format(p=Plant())

Datetime

from datetime import datetime
'{0:%Y-%m-%d %H:%M}'.format(datetime(2001, 2, 3, 4, 5))


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"
'{0:open-the-pod-bay-doors}'.format(HAL9000())