CODEWITHSUNDEEP
migrationpython-3.xpython
Steve V.
Steve V.

Reputation: 453

Converting dynamic, nicely formatted tabular data in Python to str.format()

I have the following Python 2.x code, which generates a header row for tabular data:

headers = ['Name', 'Date', 'Age']
maxColumnWidth = 20 # this is just a placeholder
headerRow = "|".join( ["%s" % k.center(maxColumnWidth) for k in headers] )
print(headerRow)

This code outputs the following:

         Name          |        Date        |          Age

Which is exactly what I want - the data is nicely formatted and centered in columns of width maxColumnWidth. (maxColumnWidth is calculated earlier in the program)

According to the Python docs, you should be able to do the same thing in Python3 with curly brace string formatting, as follows:

headerRow = "|".join( ["{:^maxColumnWidth}".format(k) for k in headers] )

However, when I do this, I get the following:

ValueError: Invalid conversion specification

But, if I do this:

headerRow = "|".join( ["{:^30}".format(k) for k in headers] )

Everything works fine. My question is: How do I use a variable in the format string instead of an integer?:

headerRow = "|".join( ["{:^maxColumnWidth}".format(k) for k in headers] )

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1939

Answers (2)

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

Reputation: 799082

As it says, your conversion specification is invalid. "maxColumnWidth" is not a valid conversion specification.

>>> "{:^{maxColumnWidth}}".format('foo', maxColumnWidth=10)
'   foo    '

Upvotes: 3

unutbu
unutbu

Reputation: 880269

headers = ['Name', 'Date', 'Age']
maxColumnWidth=21
headerRow = "|".join( "{k:^{m}}".format(k=k,m=maxColumnWidth) for k in headers )
print(headerRow)

yields

        Name        |        Date        |        Age
  1. You can represent the width maxColumnWidth as {m}, and then substitute the value through a format parameter.
  2. No need to use brackets (list comprehension) inside the join. A generator expression (without brackets) suffices.

Upvotes: 4

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