CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xconcatenationreadabilitycode-readability
user5870134
user5870134

Reputation:

What is the most efficient and readable way to pass/format lots of variables to a large string?

I have a couple "lengthy" lines like this one:

content = "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n  <meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=UTF-8\">\n  <title>{0} - {1}</title>\n  <link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"{3}/{2}.{4}\" />\n</head>\n<body>\n  <!-- layout... -->\n  <script type\"text/javascript\" src=\"{5}/{2}.{6}\"></script>\n</body>\n</html>\n".format(settings["app.name"], ncc, name, settings["dir"]["static.style"], settings["lang.style"], settings["dir"]["static.script"], settings["lang.script"])

Just by looking at such a line it you can tell that it is quite large and that it is in some ways hard to read and / or understand.

Is there a more efficient and readable way to dynamically insert lots of values into large strings?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 93

Answers (3)

freakish
freakish

Reputation: 56527

Another option would be to do:

content = (
    "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n  "
    "<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=UTF-8\">\n"
    "  <title>{0} - {1}</title>\n  "
    "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"{3}/{2}.{4}\" />\n</head>\n<body>\n"
    "  <!-- layout... -->\n  "
    "<script type\"text/javascript\" src=\"{5}/{2}.{6}\"></script>\n</body>\n</html>\n"
).format(
    settings["app.name"], ncc, name, settings["dir"]["static.style"],
    settings["lang.style"], settings["dir"]["static.script"],
    settings["lang.script"]
)

Note that there is no , at the end of each line.

However the best way to generate HTML is probably via some templating framework, e.g. jinja, mako, etc.

Upvotes: 1

limbo
limbo

Reputation: 702

by having the strings in a list and then doing a join as in ' '.join(list). This will be a lot faster than simple concatenation.

list = ["The quick brown", "fox"] result = " ".join(list) Here is a link to see the difference is performance

Upvotes: 0

unutbu
unutbu

Reputation: 880399

You could use a multiline string:

args = (settings["app.name"], ncc, name, settings["dir"]["static.style"], 
        settings["lang.style"], settings["dir"]["static.script"], 
        settings["lang.script"])

content = """\
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
  <title>{0} - {1}</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{3}/{2}.{4}" />
</head>
<body>
  <!-- layout... -->
  <script type"text/javascript" src="{5}/{2}.{6}"></script>
</body>
</html>""".format(args)

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions