Use Python format string in reverse for parsing

Question

I\'ve been using the following python code to format an integer part ID as a formatted part number string:

pn = \'PN-{:0>9}\'.format(id)

Answer 1

The parse module "is the opposite of format()".

Example usage:

>>> import parse
>>> format_string = 'PN-{:0>9}'
>>> id = 123
>>> pn = format_string.format(id)
>>> pn
'PN-000000123'
>>> parsed = parse.parse(format_string, pn)
>>> parsed

>>> parsed[0]
'123'