What is the most pythonic way to avoid specifying the same value in a string

Question

message = "hello %s , how are you %s, welcome %s"%("john","john","john")

What is the most pythonic way to avoid specifying "john" 3 times and instead to specify one phrase.

Answer 1

I wouldn't use % formatting, .format has many advantages. Also % formatting was originally planned to be removed with .format replacing it, although apparently this hasn't actually happened.

A new system for built-in string formatting operations replaces the % string formatting operator. (However, the % operator is still supported; it will be deprecated in Python 3.1 and removed from the language at some later time.) Read PEP 3101 for the full scoop.

>>> "hello {name}, how are you {name}, welcome {name}".format(name='john')
'hello john, how are you john, welcome john'

I prefer the first way since it is explicit, but here is a reason why .format is superior over % formatting

>>> "hello {0}, how are you {0}, welcome {0}".format('john')
'hello john, how are you john, welcome john'

Answer 2

"hello %(name)s , how are you %(name)s, welcome %(name)s" % {"name": "john"}
'hello john, how are you john, welcome john'

This is another way to do this without using format.