Can I replace this for loop with a join?

[Ulrich Eckhardt]

Ben Finney wrote:
> Paul Watson <paul.hermeneutic at gmail.com> writes:
>> On Mon, 2009-04-13 at 17:03 +0200, WP wrote:
>> > dict = {1:'astring', 2:'anotherstring'}
>> > for key in dict.keys():
>> >      print 'Press %i for %s' % (key, dict[key])
>> 
>> In addition to the comments already made, this code will be quite
>> broken if there is ever a need to localize your package in another
>> language.
> 
> How is this code especially broken? AFAICT, it merely needs the strings
> marked for translation, which is the best i18n situation any regular
> program can hope for anyway.
> 

The problem is that some language might require you to write "For X press
Y", which is impossible to achieve here. I think percent-formatting
supports using keys, like

  "Press %{key} for %{action}" % {'key': key, 'action':dict[key]}

However, I would also like to hear what Paul really meant and also the
alternatives he proposes.

Uli


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