String Formatting using python

Question

Is there any way to do this kind of string formatting using PYTHON3

*************Food*************
initial deposit        1000.00
groceries               -10.15
restaurant and more foo -15.89
Transfer to Clothing    -50.00

where the numbers are aligned to the right and the texts are aligned to the left

ledger = [

    {'amount':10000,'description': 'initial deposit'},
    {'amount':-10.15,'description': 'groceries'},
    {'amount':-15.89,'description': 'restaurant and more food costings'},
    {'amount':-50,'description': 'Transfer to Clothing'}
    
]

please note that the value of the description key might depending on the user... so It might be much longer or it might also not these ones

if I do

string = ''
for dic in ledger:
    string += '{description:<23}{amount:>7.2f}'.format(**dic)
    string += '\n'

print(string)

the output is like this...

initial deposit        10000.00
groceries               -10.15
restaurant and more food costings -15.89
Transfer to Clothing    -50.00

but I want the description part to stop before the numbers

also the decimal points are not aligning

so what else am I missing here Thank You!!!!

All the Python formatting methods allow you to specify whether a field is left or right aligned. Read the documentation. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Oct 19, 2021 at 19:16

j1-lee · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-19 19:51:17Z

2

You can do that by first calculating the with of the columns and then using f-strings. Also for the header of the table, str.center() is useful. Try:

ledger = [{'amount': 10000, 'description': 'initial deposit'},
          {'amount': -10.15, 'description': 'groceries'},
          {'amount': -15.89, 'description': 'restaurant and more food costings'},
          {'amount': -50, 'description': 'Transfer to Clothing'}]

width_desc = max(len(d['description']) for d in ledger)
width_amnt = max(len(f"{d['amount']:.2f}") for d in ledger)

print('Food'.center(width_desc + 1 + width_amnt, '*'))
for d in ledger:
    print(f"{d['description']:{width_desc}} {d['amount']:>{width_amnt}.2f}")

# *******************Food*******************
# initial deposit                   10000.00
# groceries                           -10.15
# restaurant and more food costings   -15.89
# Transfer to Clothing                -50.00

edited Oct 19, 2021 at 19:51

answered Oct 19, 2021 at 19:45

j1-lee

13.9k3 gold badges16 silver badges27 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

ZeDragon · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-19 19:51:57Z

0

By using f-strings you can do a lot of cool formating things in python 3. This guide is pretty good for learning about the different ways you can use f-strings in python.

To do a aligned table you can use fields like:

ages = {"Mike":10, "Leonardo":32, "Donatello":144, "Raphael":5}

for k, v in ages.items():
    print(f"{k:10}\t{v:10}")

Which will output

Mike            10        
Leonardo        32        
Donatello       144
Raphael         5

The f at the start of the string means its a f-string. The :10 after the variable means that it will be aligned in a ten character wide field. By default strings and most objects are left aligned while numbers are right aligned. To change the alignement you can use the < or > option before the number e.g. :<10. You could automatically determine the field width or cut off strings that are too long easily.

answered Oct 19, 2021 at 19:51

ZeDragon

857 bronze badges

3 Comments

Arafat Over a year ago

If i do this

ages = {"Mike":10, "Leonardo":32, "Donatello the Donny":144, "Raphael":5} # in the place of Donatello using _DONATELLO THE DONNY_  for k, v in ages.items():     print(f"{k:10}\t{v:7.2f}")

The alignment doesn't work anymore. Is there a way to cut of the rest of the strings

ZeDragon Over a year ago

For example, you could slice the string. If you change the print statement to print(f"{k[:10]:10}\t{v:10}") it will cut off the string.

ZeDragon Over a year ago

Or if you wanted it to automatically determine the length with a set max length:

MAX_WIDTH = 20 width = max(a for a in ages.values()) if width > MAX_WIDTH:     width = MAX_WIDTH  for k, v in ages.items():     print(f"{k[:width]:{width}}\t{v:10}")

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

String Formatting using python

2 Answers 2

Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related