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

But one thing is that also if you have nested curly-braces, won't work for format but % will work.

Example:

>>> '{{0}, {1}}'.format(1,2)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
    '{{0}, {1}}'.format(1,2)
ValueError: Single '}' encountered in format string
>>> '{%s, %s}'%(1,2)
'{1, 2}'
>>>