Vivienne Reay

Formatting

Formatting controls how text and data appear when printed.

New line (\n)

print("Hello\nWorld")

\n tells Python to start a new line.

So the output becomes:

Hello
World

f-strings

name = "Alice"
print(f"Hello, {name}")

An f-string lets you insert variable values directly into text using {}. {name} is replaced with the value stored in name. This is often the cleanest way to build strings.

Formatting numbers and currency

price = 9.456
print(f"{price:.2f}")   # 9.46

:.2f means "format this number with 2 decimal places". Python rounds the number for you.

• .2 → two decimal places
• f → format as a floating-point number

large = 1000000
print(f"{large:,}")     # 1,000,000

:, adds commas to large numbers to make them easier to read. Useful for things like money totals, file sizes, or populations.

amount = 12.5
print(f"£{amount:.2f}")

You write the currency symbol yourself (£). Then :.2f ensures the value is shown with exactly two decimal places — the standard for currency.

Aligning text

Alignment controls how text is positioned in a fixed space.

print(f"{'Name':<10} {'Score':>5}")
print(f"{'Alice':<10} {95:>5}")
print(f"{'Bob':<10} {72:>5}")

Output:

Name        Score
Alice          95
Bob            72

• 'Name': <10 → “Name” takes up 10 spaces, aligned to the left
• Score: >5 → “Score” takes up 5 spaces, aligned to the right
• The data lines follow the same alignment rules

This creates a simple, neat table that lines up correctly, even when text and numbers have different lengths.