How can I fill out a Python string with spaces?

Question

I want to fill out a string with spaces. I know that the following works for zero\'s:

>>> print  \"\'%06d\'\"%4
\'000004\'

But wha

Answer 1

The new(ish) string format method lets you do some fun stuff with nested keyword arguments. The simplest case:

>>> '{message: <16}'.format(message='Hi')
'Hi             '

If you want to pass in 16 as a variable:

>>> '{message: <{width}}'.format(message='Hi', width=16)
'Hi              '

If you want to pass in variables for the whole kit and kaboodle:

'{message:{fill}{align}{width}}'.format(
   message='Hi',
   fill=' ',
   align='<',
   width=16,
)

Which results in (you guessed it):

'Hi              '

And for all these, you can use python 3.6 f-strings:

message = 'Hi'
fill = ' '
align = '<'
width = 16
f'{message:{fill}{align}{width}}'

And of course the result:

'Hi              '