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How to Align Text in Two Columns with ljust in Python
Format pairs of strings into two aligned columns using ljust padding.
items = [
("apple", "red"),
("banana", "yellow"),
("cherry", "dark red"),
("date", "brown")
]
col1_width = max(len(name) for name, _ in items) + 2
for name, color in items:
print(name.ljust(col1_width) + color)
How to Center Text in a Fixed-Width Banner in Python
Centers any text inside a fixed-width banner using fill characters and computed padding.
def center_text_banner(text, width=40, fill_char="="):
"""Center text within a fixed-width banner."""
if len(text) >= width:
return text
total_padding = width - len(text)
left_padding = total_padding // 2
right_padding = total_padding - left_padding
banner_line = fill_char * w…
How to Pad a String with Zeros in Python
Pad a string to a fixed width by left-filling it with zeros using the built-in str.zfill method.
def pad_zeros(s, width):
return s.zfill(width)
if __name__ == "__main__":
print(repr(pad_zeros("42", 6)))
print(repr(pad_zeros("-7", 5)))
print(repr(pad_zeros("hello", 10)))
print(repr(pad_zeros("123", 3)))
How to Pad a List to Length n in Python with a Fill Value
Create a reusable function that pads a Python list to a specified length n by appending a fill value, or truncates it when the list is already longer than n.
def pad_list(lst, n, fill_value=None):
"""
Pad a list to length n using fill_value for missing elements.
If the list is longer than n, it is truncated to length n.
"""
if n <= len(lst):
return lst[:n]
return lst + [fill_value] * (n - len(lst))
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Examples…
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