Python Number Formatting Made Easy with f-Strings

Python f-strings are a way to format strings in a concise and readable manner. With f-strings, you can include expressions inside curly braces {} that will be evaluated at runtime and replaced with their values in the resulting string. Formatting numbers with f-strings is also straightforward and offers a lot of flexibility.

There are several formatting options that can be used with f-strings. The most commonly used ones for numbers are:

• {variable:format_spec}: This is the basic syntax for f-strings. The format_spec is a string that specifies how the variable should be formatted.
• :d: Format an integer number as a decimal integer.
• :f: Format a floating-point number as a fixed-point number.
• :e: Format a floating-point number in scientific notation.
• :g: Format a floating-point number as either a fixed-point number or in scientific notation, depending on which is more compact.

Below are some examples of how to use f-strings to format numbers.

Format an integer:

age = 25
print(f"I am {age:d} years old.")  # output: I am 25 years old.

Format a floating-point number with fixed-point notation:

pi = 3.14159265
print(f"Pi is approximately {pi:.2f}.")  # output: Pi is approximately 3.14.

Format a floating-point number with scientific notation:

avogadro = 6.02214076e23
print(f"Avogadro's number is {avogadro:e}.")  # output: Avogadro's number is 6.022141e+23.

Format a floating-point number in either fixed-point or scientific notation:

g = 9.81
print(f"The acceleration due to gravity is {g:g} m/s^2.")  # output: The acceleration due to gravity is 9.81 m/s^2.

In the examples above, the expressions inside the curly braces {} are evaluated at runtime and replaced with their values formatted according to the specified format_spec.

You can also use f-strings to format numbers in more complex ways. For example, you can specify the width and alignment of the output, or include a thousands separator. Below are some examples.

Format an integer with leading zeros and a minimum width of 4 characters:

number = 42
print(f"The answer is {number:04d}.")  # output: The answer is 0042.

Format a floating-point number with a minimum width of 10 characters and right alignment:

price = 9.99
print(f"The price is ${price:>10.2f}.")  # output: The price is $      9.99.

Format an integer with a thousands separator:

population = 8027959165
print(f"The population is {population:,} people.")  # output: The population is 8,027,959,165 people.

In the examples above, the format_spec includes additional options that specify the minimum width of the output, the alignment, and the use of a thousands separator.

Conclusion

With f-strings, you can easily format numbers in a variety of ways that are both concise and readable. I hope this tutorial has been helpful in understanding how to format numbers in Python.