Pythonic way to create a long multi-line string

Question

I have a very long query. I would like to split it in several lines in Python. A way to do it in JavaScript would be using several sentences and joining them with a +<

Answer 1

"À la" Scala way (but I think is the most pythonic way as OQ demands):

description = """
            | The intention of this module is to provide a method to 
            | pass meta information in markdown_ header files for 
            | using it in jinja_ templates. 
            | 
            | Also, to provide a method to use markdown files as jinja 
            | templates. Maybe you prefer to see the code than 
            | to install it.""".replace('\n            | \n','\n').replace('            | ',' ')

If you want final str without jump lines, just put \n at the start of the first argument of the second replace:

.replace('\n            | ',' ')`.

Note: the white line between "...templates." and "Also, ..." requires a whitespace after the |.

Answer 2

This approach uses:

• just one backslash to avoid an initial linefeed
• almost no internal punctuation by using a triple quoted string
• strips away local indentation using the textwrap inspect module
• uses python 3.6 formatted string interpolation ('f') for the account_id and def_id variables.

This way looks the most pythonic to me.

# import textwrap  # See update to answer below
import inspect

# query = textwrap.dedent(f'''\
query = inspect.cleandoc(f'''
    SELECT action.descr as "action", 
    role.id as role_id,
    role.descr as role
    FROM 
    public.role_action_def,
    public.role,
    public.record_def, 
    public.action
    WHERE role.id = role_action_def.role_id AND
    record_def.id = role_action_def.def_id AND
    action.id = role_action_def.action_id AND
    role_action_def.account_id = {account_id} AND
    record_def.account_id={account_id} AND
    def_id={def_id}'''
)

Update: 1/29/2019 Incorporate @ShadowRanger's suggestion to use inspect.cleandoc instead of textwrap.dedent

Answer 3

Another option that I think is more readable when the code (e.g variable) is indented and the output string should be a one liner (no newlines):

def some_method():

    long_string = """
a presumptuous long string 
which looks a bit nicer 
in a text editor when
written over multiple lines
""".strip('\n').replace('\n', ' ')

    return long_string 

Answer 4

Combining the ideas from:

Levon or Jesse, Faheel and ddrscott

with my formatting suggestion, you could write your query as:

query = ('SELECT'
             ' action.descr as "action"'
             ',role.id as role_id'
             ',role.descr as role'
         ' FROM'
             ' public.role_action_def'
             ',public.role'
             ',public.record_def'
             ',public.action'
         ' WHERE'
             ' role.id = role_action_def.role_id'
             ' AND'
             ' record_def.id = role_action_def.def_id'
             ' AND'
             ' action.id = role_action_def.action_id'
             ' AND'
             ' role_action_def.account_id = ?' # account_id
             ' AND'
             ' record_def.account_id = ?'      # account_id
             ' AND'
             ' def_id = ?'                     # def_id
         )

 vars = (account_id, account_id, def_id)     # a tuple of the query variables
 cursor.execute(query, vars)                 # using Python's sqlite3 module

or like:

vars = []
query = ('SELECT'
             ' action.descr as "action"'
             ',role.id as role_id'
             ',role.descr as role'
         ' FROM'
             ' public.role_action_def'
             ',public.role'
             ',public.record_def'
             ',public.action'
         ' WHERE'
             ' role.id = role_action_def.role_id'
             ' AND'
             ' record_def.id = role_action_def.def_id'
             ' AND'
             ' action.id = role_action_def.action_id'
             ' AND'
             ' role_action_def.account_id = '
                 vars.append(account_id) or '?'
             ' AND'
             ' record_def.account_id = '
                 vars.append(account_id) or '?'
             ' AND'
             ' def_id = '
                 vars.append(def_id) or '?'
         )

 cursor.execute(query, tuple(vars))  # using Python's sqlite3 module

Which could be interesting together with 'IN' and 'vars.extend(options) or n_options(len(options))', where:

def n_options(count):
    return '(' + ','.join(count*'?') + ')'

Or with the hint from darkfeline, that you might still make mistakes with those leading spaces and separators and also with named placeholders:

SPACE_SEP = ' '
COMMA_SEP = ', '
AND_SEP   = ' AND '

query = SPACE_SEP.join((
    'SELECT',
        COMMA_SEP.join((
        'action.descr as "action"',
        'role.id as role_id',
        'role.descr as role',
        )),
    'FROM',
        COMMA_SEP.join((
        'public.role_action_def',
        'public.role',
        'public.record_def',
        'public.action',
        )),
    'WHERE',
        AND_SEP.join((
        'role.id = role_action_def.role_id',
        'record_def.id = role_action_def.def_id',
        'action.id = role_action_def.action_id',
        'role_action_def.account_id = :account_id',
        'record_def.account_id = :account_id',
        'def_id = :def_id',
        )),
    ))

vars = {'account_id':account_id,'def_id':def_id}  # a dictionary of the query variables
cursor.execute(query, vars)                       # using Python's sqlite3 module

See documentation of Cursor.execute-function.

"This is the [most pythonic] way!" - ...

Answer 5

For example:

sql = ("select field1, field2, field3, field4 "
       "from table "
       "where condition1={} "
       "and condition2={}").format(1, 2)

Output: 'select field1, field2, field3, field4 from table 
         where condition1=1 and condition2=2'

if the value of condition should be a string, you can do like this:

sql = ("select field1, field2, field3, field4 "
       "from table "
       "where condition1='{0}' "
       "and condition2='{1}'").format('2016-10-12', '2017-10-12')

Output: "select field1, field2, field3, field4 from table where
         condition1='2016-10-12' and condition2='2017-10-12'"

Answer 6

I usually use something like this:

text = '''
    This string was typed to be a demo
    on how could we write a multi-line
    text in Python.
'''

If you want to remove annoying blank spaces in each line, you could do as follows:

text = '\n'.join(line.lstrip() for line in text.splitlines())