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Python Data Science Basics Describing Data Calculate Averages

Drew Butcher
Drew Butcher
33,160 Points
Posted by Drew Butcher
Drew Butcher
33,160 Points

String Format

in the {:03.2f} what does the 03 do? I receive the same result with just {:0.2f}

1 Answer

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points

{:03.2f} says "three or more total digits, two digits after the period. Since a float will always have at least one digit in front of the period, {:03.2f}, {:02.2f}, {:01.2f}, and {:0.2f} are all equivalent.

Edit: corrected answer based on James Shi's comment.

James Shi
James Shi
8,942 Points

Technically this is wrong. The 3 means at least 3 characters. The 0 means if there aren't at least 3 characters, pad zeros in front of the number to increase the amount of characters to 3. You only need {:.2f}.

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points

James Shi, you are correct! Yes, the "3" does mean "three or more characters".

Part of my point was that with the ".2f" present, the a width value of three or less is equivalent:

>>> n = 3.14159265358
>>> print("{:03.2f}, {:02.2f}, {:01.2f}, and {:0.2f}".format(n, n, n, n))
3.14, 3.14, 3.14, and 3.14
>>> n = 1023.14159265358
>>> print("{:03.2f}, {:02.2f}, {:01.2f}, and {:0.2f}".format(n, n, n, n))
1023.14, 1023.14, 1023.14, and 1023.14
>>> n = 3.1
>>> print("{:03.2f}, {:02.2f}, {:01.2f}, and {:0.2f}".format(n, n, n, n))
3.10, 3.10, 3.10, and 3.10

Thanks for catching this error. I'll update the answer above.