[python] What's the difference between %s and %d in Python string formatting?

I don't understand what %s and %d do and how they work.

speaking of which ...
python3.6 comes with f-strings which makes things much easier in formatting!
now if your python version is greater than 3.6 you can format your strings with these available methods:

name = "python"

print ("i code with %s" %name)          # with help of older method
print ("i code with {0}".format(name))  # with help of format
print (f"i code with {name}")           # with help of f-strings

They are format specifiers. They are used when you want to include the value of your Python expressions into strings, with a specific format enforced.

See Dive into Python for a relatively detailed introduction.

They are used for formatting strings. %s acts a placeholder for a string while %d acts as a placeholder for a number. Their associated values are passed in via a tuple using the % operator.

name = 'marcog'
number = 42
print '%s %d' % (name, number)

will print marcog 42. Note that name is a string (%s) and number is an integer (%d for decimal).

See https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting for details.

In Python 3 the example would be:

print('%s %d' % (name, number))

%s is used as a placeholder for string values you want to inject into a formatted string.

%d is used as a placeholder for numeric or decimal values.

For example (for python 3)

print ('%s is %d years old' % ('Joe', 42))

Would output

Joe is 42 years old

Here is the basic example to demonstrate the Python string formatting and a new way to do it.

my_word = 'epic'
my_number = 1

print('The %s number is %d.' % (my_word, my_number))  # traditional substitution with % operator

//The epic number is 1.

print(f'The {my_word} number is {my_number}.')  # newer format string style

//The epic number is 1.

Both prints the same.

In case you would like to avoid %s or %d then..

name = 'marcog'
number = 42
print ('my name is',name,'and my age is:', number)

Output:

my name is marcog and my name is 42

As per latest standards, this is how it should be done.

print("My name is {!s} and my number is{:d}".format("Agnel Vishal",100))

Do check python3.6 docs and sample program

%d and %s are placeholders, they work as a replaceable variable. For example, if you create 2 variables

variable_one = "Stackoverflow"
variable_two = 45

you can assign those variables to a sentence in a string using a tuple of the variables.

variable_3 = "I was searching for an answer in %s and found more than %d answers to my question"

Note that %s works for String and %d work for numerical or decimal variables.

if you print variable_3 it would look like this

print(variable_3 % (variable_one, variable_two))

I was searching for an answer in StackOverflow and found more than 45 answers to my question.

%s is used to hold space for string %d is used to hold space for number

name = "Moses";
age = 23
print("My name is %s am CEO at MoTech Computers " %name)
print("Current am %d years old" %age)
print("So Am %s and am %d years old" %(name,age))

Program output

this video goes deep about that tip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zN5YsuiqMA

The %d and %s string formatting "commands" are used to format strings. The %d is for numbers, and %s is for strings.

For an example:

print("%s" % "hi")

and

print("%d" % 34.6)

To pass multiple arguments:

print("%s %s %s%d" % ("hi", "there", "user", 123456)) will return hi there user123456

These are all informative answers, but none are quite getting at the core of what the difference is between %s and %d.

%s tells the formatter to call the str() function on the argument and since we are coercing to a string by definition, %s is essentially just performing str(arg).

%d on the other hand, is calling int() on the argument before calling str(), like str(int(arg)), This will cause int coercion as well as str coercion.

For example, I can convert a hex value to decimal,

>>> '%d' % 0x15
'21'

or truncate a float.

>>> '%d' % 34.5
'34'

But the operation will raise an exception if the argument isn't a number.

>>> '%d' % 'thirteen'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: %d format: a number is required, not str

So if the intent is just to call str(arg), then %s is sufficient, but if you need extra formatting (like formatting float decimal places) or other coercion, then the other format symbols are needed.

With the f-string notation, when you leave the formatter out, the default is str.

>>> a = 1
>>> f'{a}'
'1'
>>> f'{a:d}'
'1'
>>> a = '1'
>>> f'{a:d}'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Unknown format code 'd' for object of type 'str'

The same is true with string.format; the default is str.

>>> a = 1
>>> '{}'.format(a)
'1'
>>> '{!s}'.format(a)
'1'
>>> '{:d}'.format(a)
'1'

from python 3 doc

%d is for decimal integer

%s is for generic string or object and in case of object, it will be converted to string

Consider the following code

name ='giacomo'
number = 4.3
print('%s %s %d %f %g' % (name, number, number, number, number))

the out put will be

giacomo 4.3 4 4.300000 4.3

as you can see %d will truncate to integer, %s will maintain formatting, %f will print as float and %g is used for generic number

obviously

print('%d' % (name))

will generate an exception; you cannot convert string to number

These are placeholders:

For example: 'Hi %s I have %d donuts' %('Alice', 42)

This line of code will substitute %s with Alice (str) and %d with 42.

Output: 'Hi Alice I have 42 donuts'

This could be achieved with a "+" most of the time. To gain a deeper understanding to your question, you may want to check {} / .format() as well. Here is one example: Python string formatting: % vs. .format

also see here a google python tutorial video @ 40', it has some explanations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKTZoB2Vjuk