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

If your python >= 3.6, F-string formatted literal is your new friend.

It's more simple, clean, and better performance.

In [1]: params=['Hello', 'adam', 42]

In [2]: %timeit "%s %s, the answer to everything is %d."%(params[0],params[1],params[2])
448 ns ± 1.48 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000000 loops each)

In [3]: %timeit "{} {}, the answer to everything is {}.".format(*params)
449 ns ± 1.42 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000000 loops each)

In [4]: %timeit f"{params[0]} {params[1]}, the answer to everything is {params[2]}."
12.7 ns ± 0.0129 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000000 loops each)