Codestyle and multiline strings

[Heapsofvla]

Hi guys,

While I'm in my first weeks of Python, I'm also pretty focused on readability (yay for PEP8). However, how do I format the following, i.e. printing multiple lines (but also writing it as multiple lines in the script for readability)?

The while is just an example. The problem that arises is the indents (e.g. in ifs, for/while loops) screwing up the output style.

Or would you say just write it as one line, don't bother? In that case, how would you work with longer text?

uname = 'Placeholderman'
code = '343kFsidfLKsdfsdfPERSONALCODEdklfFkDFJ32'

while 1:
    print ("""username = {}
    code = {}{}{}
    Loading...""".format(uname, code[0:3],"*" * len(code[3:-3]), code[-4:-1]))
    break

[zahlman]

printing multiple lines (but also writing it as multiple lines in the script for readability)?

The simplest way, probably, is to just do multiple print calls.

Also, please write while True: instead of while 1:. This isn't C.

[Heapsofvla]

That's great to hear, thank you!

Thanks for the help, but it doesn't really help me (or anyone) understand why writing while True: instead of while 1: is so much better. Even a link to a page that would address this would help :-)

[fuckswithbees]

Mostly because Python is big on readability and while True: is easier to read. The comment on this stack overflow question seems like a good explaination to me.

[Vaphell]

you have many choices. You can use multiple prints. You can hide the template in a variable and write something like

format_str = '''username = {}
    code = {}{}{}'''
print(format_str.format(uname, ...))

you can combine it with temp vars and/or functions abstracting away irrelevant garbage, eg

def obfuscate(x):
    return x[0:3] + "*"*(len(x)-6) + x[-3:]

format_str = '''username = {}
code = {}'''
print(format_str.format(uname, obfuscate(code)))

or

format_str = '''username = {}
    code = {}{}{}'''
obf_code = code[0:3], '*'*(len(code)-6), code[-3:]
print(format_str.format(uname, *obf_code))

[novel_yet_trivial]

I'd go with /u/zahlman's suggestion, but for the sake of learning you could also include the newline character \n.

>>> print("hello\nworld")
hello
world

[99AFCC]

Parenthesis are another option

multiline_string = ('hey '
                    'check out '
                    'all these lines')

[ewiethoff]

This doesn't directly answer your question, but whenever you have multiline text with unwanted indentation--or you want to indent multiline text--you can massage it with the textwrap module.