[Tutor] [Re:] I need help with the following question

[Alan Gauld]

On 10/09/13 08:58, Thabile Rampa wrote:

>> print "For a circle of radius %s the area is %s" % (radius,area)
> <snip>
>> Question: What is the purpose of %s ?

Oscar has answered your basic question but to add to his comments thee 
are other reasons for using the %s rather than str() or simply printing 
the variables directly. The %s allows us to add extra information to 
control the format of the string produced, for example the total field 
length and whether it is left or right justified.

eg Try

 >>> "%12s" % "Hello"
 >>> "%-12s" % "Hello"
 >>> "%-12.4s" % "Hello"

You can read about all the string formatting characters and
their 'extras' here:

http://www.python.org/doc//current/library/stdtypes.html

in Section 6.6.2

Note that in Python 3 this style of string formatting is being 
deprecated in favour of the new format method of strings (linked
on the same page above under the str.format() method) which
offers even more options.

HTH
-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos