How Can I Pad Strings and Numbers with Leading Zeros in Python?

String Padding with Zeros

Adding zeros to the left of a string to reach a specific length is a common task in programming. This technique is useful for formatting numeric values, ensuring consistent field widths, and other applications.

String Padding

To pad strings with zeros, Python provides the zfill() method. For instance, if we have a string n = '4', we can pad it to a length of 3 zeros as follows:

n = '4'
print(n.zfill(3))  # Output: 004

Number Padding

Padding numbers is similar to padding strings. However, Python offers several methods to achieve this. One preferred method, available in Python 3.6 and later, is using the f-string syntax:

n = 4
print(f'{n:03}')  # Output: 004

Alternatively, you can use the % operator:

print('%03d' % n)  # Output: 004

Or the format() function:

print(format(n, '03'))  # Output: 004
print('{0:03d}'.format(n))  # Output: 004

For advanced use cases, you can specify additional parameters within the formatting string to control various aspects of the padding. Refer to the String Formatting documentation for more information.

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