Daniel da Silva ddasilva@umd.edu writes:
On several occasions I have run into code that will do something like the following with a multiline string:
def some_func():
x, y = process_something() val = """<xml> <myThing> <val>%s</val> <otherVal>%s</otherVal> </myThing>
</xml> > """ % (x, y) > > return val >
To me, this is rather ugly because it messes up the indentation of some_func(). Suppose we could have a multiline string, that when started on a line indented four spaces, ignores the first four spaces on each line of the literal when creating the actual string?
The standard library time machine to the rescue::
import textwrap
def some_func(): x, y = process_something()
val = textwrap.dedent(""" <xml> <myThing> <val>%s</val> <otherVal>%s</otherVal> </myThing>
</xml> """) % (x, y)
return val
I use this technique very often in my code. I'm surprised that it doesn't have a wider share of Python programmers. Spread the knowledge!