String formatting: % vs. .format vs. string literal

Question

Python 2.6 introduced the str.format() method with a slightly different syntax from the existing % operator. Which is better and for what situations?

Pyt

Answer 1

% gives better performance than format from my test.

Test code:

Python 2.7.2:

import timeit
print 'format:', timeit.timeit("'{}{}{}'.format(1, 1.23, 'hello')")
print '%:', timeit.timeit("'%s%s%s' % (1, 1.23, 'hello')")

Result:

> format: 0.470329046249
> %: 0.357107877731

Python 3.5.2

import timeit
print('format:', timeit.timeit("'{}{}{}'.format(1, 1.23, 'hello')"))
print('%:', timeit.timeit("'%s%s%s' % (1, 1.23, 'hello')"))

Result

> format: 0.5864730989560485
> %: 0.013593495357781649

It looks in Python2, the difference is small whereas in Python3, % is much faster than format.

Thanks @Chris Cogdon for the sample code.

Edit 1:

Tested again in Python 3.7.2 in July 2019.

Result:

> format: 0.86600608
> %: 0.630180146

There is not much difference. I guess Python is improving gradually.

Edit 2:

After someone mentioned python 3's f-string in comment, I did a test for the following code under python 3.7.2 :

import timeit
print('format:', timeit.timeit("'{}{}{}'.format(1, 1.23, 'hello')"))
print('%:', timeit.timeit("'%s%s%s' % (1, 1.23, 'hello')"))
print('f-string:', timeit.timeit("f'{1}{1.23}{\"hello\"}'"))

Result:

format: 0.8331376779999999
%: 0.6314778750000001
f-string: 0.766649943

It seems f-string is still slower than % but better than format.