[Tutor] A file containing a string of 1 billion random digits.

[Richard D. Moores]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 03:59, Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com> wrote:
> "Richard D. Moores" <rdmoores at gmail.com> wrote
>>
>> Still, I understand yours, and not his (the return line).
>
> return "%0*d" % (n, random.randrange(10**n))
>
> "%0*d"
>
> The asterisk is quite unusual but basically means substitute the next
> argument but treat it as part of the format string. So:
>
>>>> "%0*d" % (2,8)   # becomes same as "%02d"
>
> '08'
>>>>
>>>> "%0*d" % (7,8)   # becomes same as "%07d"
>
> '0000008'
>
> So for the return statement with n = 4 it would give
> "%04d" % x
>
> where x is a random number from range(10000).
> That becomes
>
> 0dddd
>
> where dddd is the random number

Just tried it with 4 and executed many times. Seems the 0 in 0dddd is
there when a dddd is a 3-digit number such as 123. In that case a zero
is prefixed to 123 to produce 0123. Or if just 23, 2 zeros are
prefixed, etc. Correct?

>
>
> The same thing can be done in two steps with:
>
> fmt = "%0%dd" % n   # eg. gives "%04d"  if n is 4
> return fmt % randrange(....)
>
> But the asterisk is neater (and faster) but can become hard to read, and
> debug, if over-used - like if there are many arguments in a single string!
>
> HTH,
>
> --
> Alan Gauld
> Author of the Learn to Program web site
> http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
>
>
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