Why do programmers use %s in the print statement, instead of adding the variable, which holds a specific value(string), to the print statement? [closed]

Question

I don't understand why programmers use %s, when they can simply just add the variable name to the print statement. I mean its less work to type in the variable name instead of " ...%s" % name) "

Example:

# declaring a string variable
name = "David"
 
# append a string within a string
print("Hey, %s!" % name)`

Why do Programmers not type in instead:

# declaring a string variable
name = "David"

# printing a salutation without having to append a string within a string:
print("Hey," + " " + name + "!")`
```

Answer 1

There may be some performance difference, but it mostly comes down to preference.

The most modern approach is to use f-strings. With your example this would look like this:

# declaring a string variable
name = "David"

# format print using f-string
print(f"Hey, {name}!")

This way there is no %s not is there need for all the extra + symbols and spaces.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

In programming languages such as C, we use %s to use a specific string stored in a variable while printing another string, for eg., in C language:

// suppose x='John Doe'
// to print my name along with another string
printf("My name is %s", x); // Output: My name is John Doe

Same works in Python along with the method you specified.

There is also a method known as f-string Eg:

name="John Doe"
print(f"My name is {name}") # output: My name is John Doe

Another method would be .format method Eg:

name="John Doe"
print("My name is {}".format(name)) # output: My name is John Doe

Hope this helps