Text formatting question

[Christopher J. Kucera]

Greetings!

I've been unable to find the answer to this elsewhere, so here I try.

I'd love to be able to use PERL-style "format" statements in Python.
I was wondering if something like this exists.  If so, if you'd be
kind enough to point me to a URL, I'd appreciate it, and if not,
I'll happily start coding it up myself.

Just wanted to save myself some time, in case it's already been done.

Thanks much for your time!
-CJ