On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:53 AM, Gerald Britton <gerald.brit...@gmail.com> wrote: > Style question: > > PEP 8 suggests that line continuations be done by enclosing > expressions in parentheses rather than using the line continuation > character. In the same paragraph, it states a preference to put > binary operators at the end of the line to be continued, so: > > x = (a + > b) > > is preferred over: > > x = (a > + b) > > Fair enough. > > What about string formatting operations (old style) though?
Fair warning: They're deprecated and liable to possibly be removed: http://docs.python.org/dev/library/stdtypes.html#old-string-formatting-operations > The % > symbols is a binary operator between a string and the substitution > values. Strictly reading PEP 8 leads to: > > my_string = ("A long string with %s substitutions that %s the line > should be %s." % > ("many", "suggest", "continued") > ) > > However, I often see the % on the continued line, immediately > preceding the substitution variables, like this: > > my_string = ("A long string with %s substitutions that %s the line > should be %s." > % ("many", "suggest", "continued") > ) > > This goes against the PEP 8 guidelines, but I prefer it since it makes > the substitution variables "jump out" a bit more -- at least to me. Remember that PEP 8 itself says: "A Foolish Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Little Minds [...] But most importantly: know when to be inconsistent -- sometimes the style guide just doesn't apply. When in doubt, use your best judgment. Look at other examples and decide what looks best." i.e. Generally, don't read PEP 8 super-strictly. FWIW, your style seems reasonable and slightly preferable to me. Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
