I have a Python object with attributes a, b, c.
I still use old string formatting, so I'd normally print these manually:
print 'My object has strings a=%s, b=%s, c=%s' % (obj.a, obj.b, obj.c)
Lately, my strings have been getting super long, and I'd much rather be able to simply pass the object into a string format function, something like:
print 'My object has strings a=%a, b=%b, c=%c'.format(obj)
However, the syntax is incorrect. Is this possible?
You can use the .attribute_name notation inside the format fields themselves:
print 'My object has strings a={0.a}, b={0.b}, c={0.c}'.format(obj)
Below is a demonstration:
>>> class Test(object):
... def __init__(self, a, b, c):
... self.a = a
... self.b = b
... self.c = c
...
>>> obj = Test(1, 2, 3)
>>> 'My object has strings a={0.a}, b={0.b}, c={0.c}'.format(obj)
'My object has strings a=1, b=2, c=3'
>>>
Note however that you do need to number the format fields when doing this. Also, as you can see, the str.format function has its format fields denoted by curly braces {...}, not the % sign.
For more information, here is a reference on the Format String Syntax in Python.