Format strings vs concatenation

Question

I see many people using format strings like this:

root = \"sample\"
output = \"output\"
path = \"{}/{}\".format(root, output)

Instead of si

Answer 1

I agree that the formatting is mostly used for readability, but since the release of f-strings in 3.6, the tables have turned in terms of performance. It is also my opinion that the f-strings are more readable/maintainable since 1) they can be read left-right like most regular text and 2) the spacing-related disadvantages of concatenation are avoided since the variables are in-string.

Running this code:

from timeit import timeit

runs = 1000000


def print_results(time, start_string):
    print(f'{start_string}\n'
          f'Total: {time:.4f}s\n'
          f'Avg: {(time/runs)*1000000000:.4f}ns\n')


t1 = timeit('"%s, %s" % (greeting, loc)',
            setup='greeting="hello";loc="world"',
            number=runs)
t2 = timeit('f"{greeting}, {loc}"',
            setup='greeting="hello";loc="world"',
            number=runs)
t3 = timeit('greeting + ", " + loc',
            setup='greeting="hello";loc="world"',
            number=runs)
t4 = timeit('"{}, {}".format(greeting, loc)',
            setup='greeting="hello";loc="world"',
            number=runs)

print_results(t1, '% replacement')
print_results(t2, 'f strings')
print_results(t3, 'concatenation')
print_results(t4, '.format method')

yields this result on my machine:

% replacement
Total: 0.3044s
Avg: 304.3638ns

f strings
Total: 0.0991s
Avg: 99.0777ns

concatenation
Total: 0.1252s
Avg: 125.2442ns

.format method
Total: 0.3483s
Avg: 348.2690ns

A similar answer to a different question is given on this answer.