partial string formatting

Question

Is it possible to do partial string formatting with the advanced string formatting methods, similar to the string template safe_substitute() function?

F

Answer 1

Thanks to Amber's comment, I came up with this:

import string

try:
    # Python 3
    from _string import formatter_field_name_split
except ImportError:
    formatter_field_name_split = str._formatter_field_name_split


class PartialFormatter(string.Formatter):
    def get_field(self, field_name, args, kwargs):
        try:
            val = super(PartialFormatter, self).get_field(field_name, args, kwargs)
        except (IndexError, KeyError, AttributeError):
            first, _ = formatter_field_name_split(field_name)
            val = '{' + field_name + '}', first
        return val