Using print with format to stdout generates unwanted space

[Tim Hoffman]

Hi Paul

Based on your description of what you want to do, print is probably  not 
the correct method of controlling output format. You should use write() 
method of the file handle to get unadulterated output.

print is working as documented .  From the Python 2.3 documentation, 
Section 6.6 The Print statement.

"print evaluates each expression in turn and writes the resulting object 
to standard output (see below). If an object is not a string, it is 
first converted to a string using the rules for string conversions. The 
(resulting or original) string is then written. A space is written 
before each object is (converted and) written, unless the output system 
believes it is positioned at the beginning of a line. This is the case 
(1) when no characters have yet been written to standard output, (2) 
when the last character written to standard output is "\n", or (3) when 
the last write operation on standard output was not a print statement."

As you can see a space char is written and is correct as per the docs.

Rgds

Tim

Paul Watson wrote:
> #!/usr/bin/env python
> 
> #   Using a print statement to stdout results in an
> #   unwanted space character being generated at the
> #   end of each print output.  Same results on
> #   DOS/Windows and AIX.
> #
> #   I need precise control over the bytes that are
> #   produced.  Why is print doing this?
> #
> import sys
> 
> #   If this is a DOS/Windows platform, then put stdout
> #   into binary mode so that only the UNIX compatible newline
> #   will be generated.
> #
> try:
>     import msvcrt, os
>     msvcrt.setmode(sys.stdout.fileno(), os.O_BINARY)
> except:
>     print 'This is not an msvcrt platform.'
>     pass
> 
> #   Using print with newline suppressed generates a space at the
> #   end of each print statement.
> #
> for i in range(3):
>     print '%d,60,' % (i),
>     for j in range(10):
>         print '%d,' % (j),
>     print ''
> 
> #   Using a list and doing a join does not result in the space
> #   character being generated.
> #
> for i in range(3):
>     alist = []
>     alist.append('%d,60,' % (i))
>     for j in range(10):
>         alist.append('%d,' % (j))
>     print ''.join(alist)
> 
> sys.exit(0) 
> 
>