How do I format a string using a dictionary in python-3.x?

Question

Is this good for you?

geopoint = {'latitude':41.123,'longitude':71.091}
print('{latitude} {longitude}'.format(**geopoint))

To unpack a dictionary into keyword arguments, use **. Also,, new-style formatting supports referring to attributes of objects and items of mappings:

'{0[latitude]} {0[longitude]}'.format(geopoint)
'The title is {0.title}s'.format(a) # the a from your first example

As Python 3.0 and 3.1 are EOL'ed and no one uses them, you can and should use str.format_map(mapping) (Python 3.2+):

Similar to str.format(**mapping), except that mapping is used directly and not copied to a dict. This is useful if for example mapping is a dict subclass.

What this means is that you can use for example a defaultdict that would set (and return) a default value for keys that are missing:

>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> vals = defaultdict(lambda: '<unset>', {'bar': 'baz'})
>>> 'foo is {foo} and bar is {bar}'.format_map(vals)
'foo is <unset> and bar is baz'

Even if the mapping provided is a dict, not a subclass, this would probably still be slightly faster.

The difference is not big though, given

>>> d = dict(foo='x', bar='y', baz='z')

then

>>> 'foo is {foo}, bar is {bar} and baz is {baz}'.format_map(d)

is about 10 ns (2 %) faster than

>>> 'foo is {foo}, bar is {bar} and baz is {baz}'.format(**d)

on my Python 3.4.3. The difference would probably be larger as more keys are in the dictionary, and

---

Note that the format language is much more flexible than that though; they can contain indexed expressions, attribute accesses and so on, so you can format a whole object, or 2 of them:

>>> p1 = {'latitude':41.123,'longitude':71.091}
>>> p2 = {'latitude':56.456,'longitude':23.456}
>>> '{0[latitude]} {0[longitude]} - {1[latitude]} {1[longitude]}'.format(p1, p2)
'41.123 71.091 - 56.456 23.456'

---

Starting from 3.6 you can use the interpolated strings too:

>>> f'lat:{p1["latitude"]} lng:{p1["longitude"]}'
'lat:41.123 lng:71.091'

You just need to remember to use the other quote characters within the nested quotes. Another upside of this approach is that it is much faster than calling a formatting method.

print("{latitude} {longitude}".format(**geopoint))

Since the question is specific to Python 3, here's using the new f-string syntax, available since Python 3.6:

>>> geopoint = {'latitude':41.123,'longitude':71.091}
>>> print(f'{geopoint["latitude"]} {geopoint["longitude"]}')
41.123 71.091

Note the outer single quotes and inner double quotes (you could also do it the other way around).