What does

Question

Going through string formatting operations but can\'t exactly wrap my head about %c operation and its use.

Learn Python the Hard Way, gave the following example but

Answer 1

It gives the character that is represented by the ASCII code "34".

If you look up an ASCII table you will notice that 34 = "

Answer 2

The %c is a format character gives the character representation. For example consider the following statements

>>> print "%c" % 'a'
a
>>> print ("%c" % 97)
a
>>> print "%c" %'"'
"
>>> print "%c" %34
"
>>> print "%c" %'asdf'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: %c requires int or char

---

Breaking up

"%c" % 34 == '"' 

would be like

>>> "%c" % 34
"
>> '"' == '"'
True

Answer 3

%c represents character values. It's part of the integer representation types.

You can't enter a value larger than an unsigned byte (255) as a positional argument to it, so be careful where and when you elect to use it.