Using Python String Formatting with Lists

Following this resource page, if the length of x is varying, we can use:

', '.join(['%.2f']*len(x))

to create a place holder for each element from the list x. Here is the example:

x = [1/3.0, 1/6.0, 0.678]
s = ("elements in the list are ["+', '.join(['%.2f']*len(x))+"]") % tuple(x)
print s
>>> elements in the list are [0.33, 0.17, 0.68]

You should take a look to the format method of python. You could then define your formatting string like this :

>>> s = '{0} BLAH BLAH {1} BLAH {2} BLAH BLIH BLEH'
>>> x = ['1', '2', '3']
>>> print s.format(*x)
'1 BLAH BLAH 2 BLAH 3 BLAH BLIH BLEH'

print s % tuple(x)

instead of

print s % (x)