I would like to format some text to the protein data bank file format. Basically what I need to do is start the text in specific columns. Right now I'm doing the formatting using ljust and rjust but I feel like there should be some magic function that I could use give a word and in what column it should start.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
If my Statckoverflow searching failed, please point me in that direction.
Here is an example of how one might format a "Coordinate Record Description" using str.format:
CRD='{r:<6}{a:>9.3f}{b:>9.3f}{c:>9.3f}{alpha:7.2f}{beta:7.2f}{gamma:7.2f} {sp:<11}{z:>4}'
data=dict(r='CRYST1',a=117,b=15.0,c=39,alpha=90,beta=90,gamma=90,sp='P 21 21 21',z=8)
print(CRD.format(**data))
# CRYST1 117.000 15.000 39.000 90.00 90.00 90.00 P 21 21 21 8
The format specifier CRD is interpreted this way:
{r:<6} tells format to string-interpolate the value of str(r), left justified, with width=6.
{a:>9.3f} tells format to string-interpolate the float value of a, right justified, with total width 9 and 3 digits after the decimal point.
The complete description of how the format specified works is given here.
You can use string "format" function with alignment. http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatspec Example with columns you can find in source codes to the 'Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language' by Mark Summerfield, file print_unicode.py
