How do I format a string using a dictionary in python-3.x?

To unpack a dictionary into keyword arguments, use **. Also,, new-style formatting supports referring to attributes of objects and items of mappings:

'{0[latitude]} {0[longitude]}'.format(geopoint)
'The title is {0.title}s'.format(a) # the a from your first example

Since the question is specific to Python 3, here's using the new f-string syntax, available since Python 3.6:

>>> geopoint = {'latitude':41.123,'longitude':71.091}
>>> print(f'{geopoint["latitude"]} {geopoint["longitude"]}')
41.123 71.091

Note the outer single quotes and inner double quotes (you could also do it the other way around).


As Python 3.0 and 3.1 are EOL'ed and no one uses them, you can and should use str.format_map(mapping) (Python 3.2+):

Similar to str.format(**mapping), except that mapping is used directly and not copied to a dict. This is useful if for example mapping is a dict subclass.

What this means is that you can use for example a defaultdict that would set (and return) a default value for keys that are missing:

>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> vals = defaultdict(lambda: '<unset>', {'bar': 'baz'})
>>> 'foo is {foo} and bar is {bar}'.format_map(vals)
'foo is <unset> and bar is baz'

Even if the mapping provided is a dict, not a subclass, this would probably still be slightly faster.

The difference is not big though, given

>>> d = dict(foo='x', bar='y', baz='z')

then

>>> 'foo is {foo}, bar is {bar} and baz is {baz}'.format_map(d)

is about 10 ns (2 %) faster than

>>> 'foo is {foo}, bar is {bar} and baz is {baz}'.format(**d)

on my Python 3.4.3. The difference would probably be larger as more keys are in the dictionary, and


Note that the format language is much more flexible than that though; they can contain indexed expressions, attribute accesses and so on, so you can format a whole object, or 2 of them:

>>> p1 = {'latitude':41.123,'longitude':71.091}
>>> p2 = {'latitude':56.456,'longitude':23.456}
>>> '{0[latitude]} {0[longitude]} - {1[latitude]} {1[longitude]}'.format(p1, p2)
'41.123 71.091 - 56.456 23.456'

Starting from 3.6 you can use the interpolated strings too:

>>> f'lat:{p1["latitude"]} lng:{p1["longitude"]}'
'lat:41.123 lng:71.091'

You just need to remember to use the other quote characters within the nested quotes. Another upside of this approach is that it is much faster than calling a formatting method.


Is this good for you?

geopoint = {'latitude':41.123,'longitude':71.091}
print('{latitude} {longitude}'.format(**geopoint))