[Python-3000] String formating operations in python 3k

[Crutcher Dunnavant]

1463370

On 4/3/06, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> > Crutcher Dunnavant wrote:
> > >>> 1. Shouldn't there be a format method, like S.format(), or S.fmt()?
> > > Why? Because:
> > > 1 It is trivially cheap, format() would be the same function as __rmod__
>
> No it shouldn't be. format() should be a varargs function; __rmod__
> takes a single argument which may be a tuple. Also, format() could
> take keyword args in case the string contains named format, so I can
> write e.g. "%(foo)s".format(foo=123).

Yes, In doing a patch for this against 2.5 (sf:1463370), I saw the
issue there. I tossed it to python-dev for comment, and was smacked
down for lack of a PEP. I suppose I could write up a PEP for this, if
you think it's worthwhile.

> > > 2 It adds consistency with lower(), strip(), and other methods which
> > > produce new strings.
>
> I'm not sure that's much of an argument.

I think it is for newibes, but that isn't a deal maker.

>
> > > 3 I am not arguing _against_ syntactic support, I am arguing _for_ a method;
> > >    we can keep the syntactic support.
>
> But remember TOOWTDI from the Zen of Python.

which is why we have d.get(k) and d[k]; k in d and d.has_key(k), etc.

> On 4/2/06, Walter Dörwald <walter at livinglogic.de> wrote:
> > and it avoids one problem you might run into with %: If you have only
> > one argument, writing ``s % (x,)`` as ``s % x`` will break when the
> > argument x happens to be a tuple. You won't have this problem with
> > s.format(x).
>
> In fact, now that I think of it, if s.format() were available, I'd use
> it in preference over s%x, just like I already use repr(x) in favor of
> `x`. And just like `x` is slated for removal in Python 3000, we might
> consider removing using % for formatting. The main reason probably
> being the problem Walter points out (which is very real).
>
> --
> --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
>


--
Crutcher Dunnavant <crutcher at gmail.com>
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