Format string unused named arguments

You could use a template string with the safe_substitute method.

from string import Template

tpl = Template('$bond, $james $bond')
action = tpl.safe_substitute({'bond': 'bond'})

You can follow the recommendation in PEP 3101 and subclass Formatter:

from __future__ import print_function
import string

class MyFormatter(string.Formatter):
    def __init__(self, default='{{{0}}}'):
        self.default=default

    def get_value(self, key, args, kwds):
        if isinstance(key, str):
            return kwds.get(key, self.default.format(key))
        else:
            return string.Formatter.get_value(key, args, kwds)

Now try it:

>>> fmt=MyFormatter()
>>> fmt.format("{bond}, {james} {bond}", bond='bond', james='james')
'bond, james bond'
>>> fmt.format("{bond}, {james} {bond}", bond='bond')
'bond, {james} bond'

You can change how key errors are flagged by changing the text in self.default to what you would like to show for KeyErrors:

>>> fmt=MyFormatter('">>{{{0}}} KeyError<<"')
>>> fmt.format("{bond}, {james} {bond}", bond='bond', james='james')
'bond, james bond'
>>> fmt.format("{bond}, {james} {bond}", bond='bond')
'bond, ">>{james} KeyError<<" bond'

The code works unchanged on Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.0+

If you are using Python 3.2+, use can use str.format_map().

For bond, bond:

from collections import defaultdict
'{bond}, {james} {bond}'.format_map(defaultdict(str, bond='bond'))

Result:

'bond,  bond'

For bond, {james} bond:

class SafeDict(dict):
    def __missing__(self, key):
        return '{' + key + '}'

'{bond}, {james} {bond}'.format_map(SafeDict(bond='bond'))

Result:

'bond, {james} bond'

In Python 2.6/2.7

For bond, bond:

from collections import defaultdict
import string
string.Formatter().vformat('{bond}, {james} {bond}', (), defaultdict(str, bond='bond'))

Result:

'bond,  bond'

For bond, {james} bond:

from collections import defaultdict
import string

class SafeDict(dict):
    def __missing__(self, key):
        return '{' + key + '}'

string.Formatter().vformat('{bond}, {james} {bond}', (), SafeDict(bond='bond'))

Result:

'bond, {james} bond'

One can also do the simple and readable, albeit somewhat silly:

'{bar}, {fro} {bar}'.format(bar='bar', fro='{fro}')

I know that this answer requires knowledge of the expected keys, but I was looking for a simple two-step substitution (say problem name first, then problem index within a loop) and creating a whole class or unreadable code was more complex than needed.