new string formatting with local variables

[Eric Snow]

On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 10:15 AM, Jabba Laci <jabba.laci at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to simplify the following string formatting:
>
> solo = 'Han Solo'
> jabba = 'Jabba the Hutt'
> print "{solo} was captured by {jabba}".format(solo=solo, jabba=jabba)
> # Han Solo was captured by Jabba the Hutt
>
> What I don't like here is this: "solo=solo, jabba=jabba", i.e. the
> same thing is repeated. In "solo=solo", the left part is a key and the
> right part is the value of a local variable, but it looks strange.
>
> I'd like something like this:
> print "{solo} was captured by {jabba}".format(locals())        # WRONG!
>
> But it doesn't work.
>
> Do you have any idea?
>

You were close:

print "{solo} was captured by {jabba}".format(**locals())

This will turn locals() into keyword args for the format call.  The
tutorial has a good explanation on argument unpacking [1].

-eric

[1] http://docs.python.org/dev/tutorial/controlflow.html#unpacking-argument-lists


> Thanks,
>
> Laszlo
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