Well, I was going to ask the question, but some experimentation has led me to the answer which I will share. Mainly because I'm sure someone out there may come across the need.
I'm writing a function that will generate me a filename such as "file0001.jpg" but I want to be able to specify the minimum length - so it could be "file01.jpg" or "file00000001.jpg" With string formatting I know you can easily specify precision a la 'file%.2d.jpg' % 1 which would give me 'file01.jpg' but then I discovered you can indeed chain together formatting (or use variables in place of string constants... of course some of us know that string objects really are references to constant strings...) - you just have to add %% where you want the final one: In [45]: 'some numbers %%.%sd' % 8 % 4 Out[45]: 'some numbers 00000004' Hope this helps someone! -Wayne -- To be considered stupid and to be told so is more painful than being called gluttonous, mendacious, violent, lascivious, lazy, cowardly: every weakness, every vice, has found its defenders, its rhetoric, its ennoblement and exaltation, but stupidity hasn’t. - Primo Levi
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