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?

In this example, I will use four quotes to start such a string. I think the syntax for this could vary though. It would be something like this:

def some_func():
    x, y = process_something()
   
    val = """"
    <xml>
      <myThing>
        <val>%s</val>
        <otherVal>%s</otherVal>
      </myThing>
    </xml>
    """" % (x, y)

    return val

That way, the indentation in the function would be preserved, making everything easy to scan, and the indentation in the output would not suffer.