How Can I Selectively Escape the Percent Sign (%) in Python String Formatting?

Selective Percent Escaping in Python Strings

In certain scenarios, you may need to selectively escape the percent character (%) in Python strings. This can be useful for constructing formatted strings while maintaining specific sequences.

Problem:

Consider the following code:

test = "have it break."
selectiveEscape = "Print percent % in sentence and not %s" % test

print(selectiveEscape)

The desired output is:

Print percent % in sentence and not have it break.

However, the actual output throws a TypeError because the %s format specifier expects a number, not a string.

Solution:

To selectively escape the percent character, use double percent signs (%%). This escapes the first percent sign while preserving the second:

test = "have it break."
selectiveEscape = "Print percent %% in sentence and not %s" % test

print(selectiveEscape)

This produces the desired output:

Print percent % in sentence and not have it break.

Conclusion:

By using double percent signs, you can selectively escape the percent character in Python strings, allowing you to construct formatted strings with specific escape sequences.

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