from math import pi print '%10f' % pi # Field width 10 print '%10.2f' % pi # Field width 10, precision 2 print '%.2f' % pi # Precision 2 print '%.5s' % 'Guido van Rossum' use an * as the width or precision (or both), in which case the number will be read from the tuple argument print '%.*s' % (5, 'Guido van Rossum')