Format Strings -- Real vs. Expected Behaviour

[Brad Bollenbach]

Just curious, from Python 2.0...

This:

    print "%s %s" % ("hello", "world")

prints "hello world"

whereas this:

    print "%s " + \
    "%s" % ("hello", "world")

Results in "TypeError: not all arguments converted".

but this:

    print ("%s " + \
    "%s") % ("hello", "world")

prints "hello world" as well.

Shouldn't Python be smart enough to know that even without ()'s around the
whole thing, this is all one line (therefore avoiding the current
odd/unexpected IMHO behaviour with the format string)? After all, I'm
telling it this much by using the line continuation character "\" aren't I?

--
 Brad Bollenbach,
Python Hacker