Python string formatting

Question

I see you guys using

url = '"%s"' % url # This part

>>> url = "http://www.site.com/info.xx"
>>> print url
http://www.site.com/info.xx
>>> url = '"%s"' % url
>>> print url
"http://www.site.com/info.xx"

Is it advanced Python? Is there a tutorial for it? How can I learn about it?

Answer 1

It's common string formatting, and very useful. It's analogous to C-style printf formatting. See String Formatting Operations in the Python.org docs. You can use multiple arguments like this:

"%3d\t%s" % (42, "the answer to ...")

Answer 2

That line of code is using Python string formatting. You can read up more on how to use it here: http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting