% string formatting - what special method is used for %d?

[Veek M]

Ian Kelly wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 11:40 PM, Veek M <vek.m1234 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Well take a look at this:
>> ###########################################
>> #!/usr/bin/python
>>
>> class Foo(int):
>>     def __init__(self, value):
>>         self.value = value
>>
>>     def __str__(self):
>>         print '__str__'
>>         return str(self.value)
>>
>>     def __int__(self):
>>         print '__int__'
>>         return self.value + 1
>>
>>
>> #'%s' % Foo(10) # %s is mapped to __str__
>> '%d' % Foo(20)
>> ###########################################
>>
>> here, '__str__' prints because when you do:
>> '%s' % x
>> the __str__ method is invoked. So internally %s invokes __str__
>> independent of print.
>>
>> However the next line doesn't trigger any similar invocation with
>> __int__ or__str__? (but int(Foo(10)) would invoked __int__)
> 
> This is probably because Foo inherits from int. Foo(20) is already an
> int so there is no conversion to be done; Python simply uses the int
> value and ignores the __int__ method in this case.
> 
>> Is there a way to trigger special methods using %d etc OR is this
>> restricted to %s and why?
> 
> For an object that is already an int, probably not.
> 
> However you may want to revisit your decision to make Foo inherit from
> int and question whether that is really sensible if you're also
> wanting to override the __int__ method. What does that mean if
> something is an int but also provides a method to convert to int? It's
> a contradiction.

Ah! thanks guys, now it works great. (I still need to ponder all this 
anyhow but yay!)