Fixed width number formatting python 3

Question

How do I get an integer to fill 0\'s to a fixed width in python 3.2 using the format attribute? Example:

a = 1
print(\'{0:3}\'.format(a))

gives

Answer 1

There is built-in string method .zfill for filling 0-s:

>>> str(42).zfill(5)
'00042'
>>> str(42).zfill(2)
'42'