Formatting text to be justified in Python 3.3 with .format() method

Question

I'm new to Python and trying to work on some sample scripts. I'm doing a simple a cash-register type thing but I want to justify or right align the output so that it looks something like this:

subTotal = 24.95
tax = subTotal * 0.0725
total = subTotal + tax
paid = 30
change = paid-total
print("The subtotal was: $",subTotal)
print("The tax was: $",tax)
print("The total was: $",total)
print("The customer paid: $",paid)
print("Change due: $",change)

I know I could simplify this with a lot less print statements, but I just wanted it to be easier to see what I'm trying to do.

I want it to output something like this, notice that the dollar amounts are all aligned and that there is no space between the $ and the dollar amount. I do not know how to do these two things.

The subtotal was:   $24.95
The tax was:         $1.81
The total was:      $26.76
The customer paid:  $30.00
Change due:          $3.24

I tried reading the Python docs for the format method, but I didn't see any examples as to what format specifiers can be used to do certain things. Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

The amount can be formated like this:

"${:.2f}".format(amount)

You can add padding to a string, for example for a width of 20:

"{:20s}".format(mystring)

You can right align the string, for example with a width of 7:

"{:>7s}".format(mystring)

Putting all this together:

s = "The subtotal was:"
a = 24.95
print("{:20s}{:>7s}".format(s, "${.2f}".format(a))