Re: string interpolation for python

References	(2 earlier) <1333174946.18436.YahooMailNeo@web121506.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> <jl6ma0$ptg$1@dough.gmane.org> <mailman.1200.1333352587.3037.python-list@python.org> <4f7962b0$0$29981$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <1333357906.6147.YahooMailNeo@web121503.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Date	2012-04-02 19:56 +1000
Subject	Re: string interpolation for python
From	Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.1207.1333360590.3037.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I believe non of the other three alternatives are as terse and readable.
> We've got template based, formatting with dict, formatting with tuple.
> They all require the coder extra effort:
>
> Both template based and dict-based formatting require writing the
> identifier three times:
>
>>>> name = 'Peter'
>>>> "Are you %(name)s"%{'name':name}
>
> If dynamic string is used:
>>>> "Are you $name$?"

Yes, it's more compact. But it's also more magic. However, there's an
alternative that's almost as compact. The only requirement is that you
use a two-character token instead of your dollar sign: a double-quote
and a plus.

>>> "Are you "+name+"?"

That allows arbitrary expressions and everything.

> Of course, the old C style way:
>
>>>> "Are you %s?"%name
>
> Almost as terse, but not as readable, especially
> when there are many parts to substitute --
> the coder and reader need to be careful
> to make sure the sequence is correct.

I quite like this notation, personally. It's convenient, and is
supported (with variants) in quite a few C-derived languages (and, in
spite of the massive syntactic differences, Python does have C
heritage).

> Why the Python community is so
> hostile to new things now?
> Python has merits,
> but it is far from being perfect.

Hey now, no need to get defensive :) Thing is, it's up to you to
demonstrate that your proposal justifies itself. You're proposing to
create a massive backward-compatibility issue, so you need to prove
that your new way of formatting strings is sufficiently awesome to be
able to say "Well, you need Python 3.4+ to use this".

ChrisA

Thread

Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 00:39 -0700
  Re: string interpolation for python Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2012-04-02 11:01 +0300
  Re: string interpolation for python Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-04-02 08:26 +0000
    Re: string interpolation for python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-04-02 18:47 +1000
    Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 02:11 -0700
      Re: string interpolation for python Duncan Booth <duncan.booth@invalid.invalid> - 2012-04-02 10:19 +0000
      Re: string interpolation for python Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-04-02 11:54 +0000
        Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 05:40 -0700
          Re: string interpolation for python Laurent Claessens <moky.math@gmail.com> - 2012-04-02 15:02 +0200
            Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 07:25 -0700
            Re: Re: string interpolation for python Evan Driscoll <driscoll@cs.wisc.edu> - 2012-04-02 15:36 -0500
          Re: string interpolation for python mwilson@the-wire.com - 2012-04-02 10:46 -0400
            Re: string interpolation for python mwilson@the-wire.com - 2012-04-02 11:34 -0400
              Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 09:02 -0700
      Re: string interpolation for python rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-04-02 06:04 -0700
    Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 02:17 -0700
      Re: string interpolation for python alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2012-04-02 22:47 -0700
    Re: string interpolation for python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-04-02 19:56 +1000
    Re: string interpolation for python Chris Rebert <clp2@rebertia.com> - 2012-04-02 03:23 -0700
    Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 04:46 -0700
    Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 05:00 -0700
    Re: string interpolation for python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 00:58 +1000
      Re: string interpolation for python Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-04-02 18:56 +0000
    Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 08:49 -0700
    Re: string interpolation for python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 08:38 +1000
      Re: string interpolation for python Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-04-02 23:18 +0000
    Re: string interpolation for python Yingjie Lan <lanyjie@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-02 18:57 -0700

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