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

Assuming you won't use the string until it's completely filled out, you could do something like this class:

class IncrementalFormatting:
    def __init__(self, string):
        self._args = []
        self._kwargs = {}
        self._string = string

    def add(self, *args, **kwargs):
        self._args.extend(args)
        self._kwargs.update(kwargs)

    def get(self):
        return self._string.format(*self._args, **self._kwargs)

Example:

template = '#{a}:{}/{}?{c}'
message = IncrementalFormatting(template)
message.add('abc')
message.add('xyz', a=24)
message.add(c='lmno')
assert message.get() == '#24:abc/xyz?lmno'