How do I pad a string with zeroes?
Question:
How do I pad a numeric string with zeroes to the left, so that the string has a specific length?
Answers:
Besides zfill
, you can use general string formatting:
print(f'{number:05d}') # (since Python 3.6), or
print('{:05d}'.format(number)) # or
print('{0:05d}'.format(number)) # or (explicit 0th positional arg. selection)
print('{n:05d}'.format(n=number)) # or (explicit `n` keyword arg. selection)
print(format(number, '05d'))
Documentation for string formatting and f-strings.
To pad strings:
>>> n = '4'
>>> print(n.zfill(3))
004
To pad numbers:
>>> n = 4
>>> print(f'{n:03}') # Preferred method, python >= 3.6
004
>>> print('%03d' % n)
004
>>> print(format(n, '03')) # python >= 2.6
004
>>> print('{0:03d}'.format(n)) # python >= 2.6 + python 3
004
>>> print('{foo:03d}'.format(foo=n)) # python >= 2.6 + python 3
004
>>> print('{:03d}'.format(n)) # python >= 2.7 + python3
004
width = 10
x = 5
print "%0*d" % (width, x)
> 0000000005
See the print documentation for all the exciting details!
Update for Python 3.x (7.5 years later)
That last line should now be:
print("%0*d" % (width, x))
I.e. print()
is now a function, not a statement. Note that I still prefer the Old School printf()
style because, IMNSHO, it reads better, and because, um, I’ve been using that notation since January, 1980. Something … old dogs .. something something … new tricks.
Just use the rjust
method of the string object.
This example creates a 10-character length string, padding as necessary:
>>> s = 'test'
>>> s.rjust(10, '0')
>>> '000000test'
For zip codes saved as integers:
>>> a = 6340
>>> b = 90210
>>> print '%05d' % a
06340
>>> print '%05d' % b
90210
str(n).zfill(width)
will work with string
s, int
s, float
s… and is Python 2.x and 3.x compatible:
>>> n = 3
>>> str(n).zfill(5)
'00003'
>>> n = '3'
>>> str(n).zfill(5)
'00003'
>>> n = '3.0'
>>> str(n).zfill(5)
'003.0'
>>> '99'.zfill(5)
'00099'
>>> '99'.rjust(5,'0')
'00099'
if you want the opposite:
>>> '99'.ljust(5,'0')
'99000'
You could also repeat “0”, prepend it to str(n)
and get the rightmost width slice. Quick and dirty little expression.
def pad_left(n, width, pad="0"):
return ((pad * width) + str(n))[-width:]
For Python 3.6+ using f-strings:
>>> i = 1
>>> f"{i:0>2}" # Works for both numbers and strings.
'01'
>>> f"{i:02}" # Works only for numbers.
'01'
For Python 2.6 to Python 3.5:
>>> "{:0>2}".format("1") # Works for both numbers and strings.
'01'
>>> "{:02}".format(1) # Works only for numbers.
'01'
Those standard format specifiers are [[fill]align][minimumwidth]
and [0][minimumwidth]
.
For the ones who came here to understand and not just a quick answer.
I do these especially for time strings:
hour = 4
minute = 3
"{:0>2}:{:0>2}".format(hour,minute)
# prints 04:03
"{:0>3}:{:0>5}".format(hour,minute)
# prints '004:00003'
"{:0<3}:{:0<5}".format(hour,minute)
# prints '400:30000'
"{:$<3}:{:#<5}".format(hour,minute)
# prints '4$$:3####'
“0” symbols what to replace with the “2” padding characters, the default is an empty space
“>” symbols allign all the 2 “0” character to the left of the string
“:” symbols the format_spec
Quick timing comparison:
setup = '''
from random import randint
def test_1():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return str(num).zfill(7)
def test_2():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return format(num, '07')
def test_3():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return '{0:07d}'.format(num)
def test_4():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return format(num, '07d')
def test_5():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return '{:07d}'.format(num)
def test_6():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return '{x:07d}'.format(x=num)
def test_7():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return str(num).rjust(7, '0')
'''
import timeit
print timeit.Timer("test_1()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_2()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_3()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_4()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_5()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_6()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_7()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
> [2.281613943830961, 2.2719342631547077, 2.261691106209631]
> [2.311480238815406, 2.318420542148333, 2.3552384305184493]
> [2.3824197456864304, 2.3457239951596485, 2.3353268829498646]
> [2.312442972404032, 2.318053102249902, 2.3054072168069872]
> [2.3482314132374853, 2.3403386400002475, 2.330108825844775]
> [2.424549090688892, 2.4346475296851438, 2.429691196530058]
> [2.3259756401716487, 2.333549212826732, 2.32049893822186]
I’ve made different tests of different repetitions. The differences are not huge, but in all tests, the zfill
solution was fastest.
What is the most pythonic way to pad a numeric string with zeroes to the left, i.e., so the numeric string has a specific length?
str.zfill
is specifically intended to do this:
>>> '1'.zfill(4)
'0001'
Note that it is specifically intended to handle numeric strings as requested, and moves a +
or -
to the beginning of the string:
>>> '+1'.zfill(4)
'+001'
>>> '-1'.zfill(4)
'-001'
Here’s the help on str.zfill
:
>>> help(str.zfill)
Help on method_descriptor:
zfill(...)
S.zfill(width) -> str
Pad a numeric string S with zeros on the left, to fill a field
of the specified width. The string S is never truncated.
Performance
This is also the most performant of alternative methods:
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '1'.zfill(4)))
0.18824880896136165
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '1'.rjust(4, '0')))
0.2104538488201797
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: f'{1:04}'))
0.32585487607866526
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '{:04}'.format(1)))
0.34988890308886766
To best compare apples to apples for the %
method (note it is actually slower), which will otherwise pre-calculate:
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '1'.zfill(0 or 4)))
0.19728074967861176
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '%04d' % (0 or 1)))
0.2347015216946602
Implementation
With a little digging, I found the implementation of the zfill
method in Objects/stringlib/transmogrify.h
:
static PyObject *
stringlib_zfill(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
Py_ssize_t fill;
PyObject *s;
char *p;
Py_ssize_t width;
if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "n:zfill", &width))
return NULL;
if (STRINGLIB_LEN(self) >= width) {
return return_self(self);
}
fill = width - STRINGLIB_LEN(self);
s = pad(self, fill, 0, '0');
if (s == NULL)
return NULL;
p = STRINGLIB_STR(s);
if (p[fill] == '+' || p[fill] == '-') {
/* move sign to beginning of string */
p[0] = p[fill];
p[fill] = '0';
}
return s;
}
Let’s walk through this C code.
It first parses the argument positionally, meaning it doesn’t allow keyword arguments:
>>> '1'.zfill(width=4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: zfill() takes no keyword arguments
It then checks if it’s the same length or longer, in which case it returns the string.
>>> '1'.zfill(0)
'1'
zfill
calls pad
(this pad
function is also called by ljust
, rjust
, and center
as well). This basically copies the contents into a new string and fills in the padding.
static inline PyObject *
pad(PyObject *self, Py_ssize_t left, Py_ssize_t right, char fill)
{
PyObject *u;
if (left < 0)
left = 0;
if (right < 0)
right = 0;
if (left == 0 && right == 0) {
return return_self(self);
}
u = STRINGLIB_NEW(NULL, left + STRINGLIB_LEN(self) + right);
if (u) {
if (left)
memset(STRINGLIB_STR(u), fill, left);
memcpy(STRINGLIB_STR(u) + left,
STRINGLIB_STR(self),
STRINGLIB_LEN(self));
if (right)
memset(STRINGLIB_STR(u) + left + STRINGLIB_LEN(self),
fill, right);
}
return u;
}
After calling pad
, zfill
moves any originally preceding +
or -
to the beginning of the string.
Note that for the original string to actually be numeric is not required:
>>> '+foo'.zfill(10)
'+000000foo'
>>> '-foo'.zfill(10)
'-000000foo'
Another approach would be to use a list comprehension with a condition checking for lengths. Below is a demonstration:
# input list of strings that we want to prepend zeros
In [71]: list_of_str = ["101010", "10101010", "11110", "0000"]
# prepend zeros to make each string to length 8, if length of string is less than 8
In [83]: ["0"*(8-len(s)) + s if len(s) < desired_len else s for s in list_of_str]
Out[83]: ['00101010', '10101010', '00011110', '00000000']
When using Python >= 3.6
, the cleanest way is to use f-strings with string formatting:
>>> s = f"{1:08}" # inline with int
>>> s
'00000001'
>>> s = f"{'1':0>8}" # inline with str
>>> s
'00000001'
>>> n = 1
>>> s = f"{n:08}" # int variable
>>> s
'00000001'
>>> c = "1"
>>> s = f"{c:0>8}" # str variable
>>> s
'00000001'
I would prefer formatting with an int
, since only then the sign is handled correctly:
>>> f"{-1:08}"
'-0000001'
>>> f"{1:+08}"
'+0000001'
>>> f"{'-1':0>8}"
'000000-1'
Its ok too:
h = 2
m = 7
s = 3
print("%02d:%02d:%02d" % (h, m, s))
so output will be: “02:07:03”
I made a function :
def PadNumber(number, n_pad, add_prefix=None):
number_str = str(number)
paded_number = number_str.zfill(n_pad)
if add_prefix:
paded_number = add_prefix+paded_number
print(paded_number)
PadNumber(99, 4)
PadNumber(1011, 8, "b'")
PadNumber('7BEF', 6, "#")
The output :
0099
b'00001011
#007BEF
I am adding how to use a int from a length of a string within an f-string because it didn’t appear to be covered:
>>> pad_number = len("this_string")
11
>>> s = f"{1:0{pad_number}}" }
>>> s
'00000000001'
For numbers:
i = 12
print(f"{i:05d}")
Output
00012
If you’re looking to pad an integer, and limit the significant figures at the same time (with f strings):
a = 4.432
>> 4.432
a = f'{a:04.1f}'
>> '04.4'
f'{a:04.1f}'
this translates to 1 decimal/(float) point, left pad the digit until 4 characters total.
How do I pad a numeric string with zeroes to the left, so that the string has a specific length?
Besides zfill
, you can use general string formatting:
print(f'{number:05d}') # (since Python 3.6), or
print('{:05d}'.format(number)) # or
print('{0:05d}'.format(number)) # or (explicit 0th positional arg. selection)
print('{n:05d}'.format(n=number)) # or (explicit `n` keyword arg. selection)
print(format(number, '05d'))
Documentation for string formatting and f-strings.
To pad strings:
>>> n = '4'
>>> print(n.zfill(3))
004
To pad numbers:
>>> n = 4
>>> print(f'{n:03}') # Preferred method, python >= 3.6
004
>>> print('%03d' % n)
004
>>> print(format(n, '03')) # python >= 2.6
004
>>> print('{0:03d}'.format(n)) # python >= 2.6 + python 3
004
>>> print('{foo:03d}'.format(foo=n)) # python >= 2.6 + python 3
004
>>> print('{:03d}'.format(n)) # python >= 2.7 + python3
004
width = 10
x = 5
print "%0*d" % (width, x)
> 0000000005
See the print documentation for all the exciting details!
Update for Python 3.x (7.5 years later)
That last line should now be:
print("%0*d" % (width, x))
I.e. print()
is now a function, not a statement. Note that I still prefer the Old School printf()
style because, IMNSHO, it reads better, and because, um, I’ve been using that notation since January, 1980. Something … old dogs .. something something … new tricks.
Just use the rjust
method of the string object.
This example creates a 10-character length string, padding as necessary:
>>> s = 'test'
>>> s.rjust(10, '0')
>>> '000000test'
For zip codes saved as integers:
>>> a = 6340
>>> b = 90210
>>> print '%05d' % a
06340
>>> print '%05d' % b
90210
str(n).zfill(width)
will work with string
s, int
s, float
s… and is Python 2.x and 3.x compatible:
>>> n = 3
>>> str(n).zfill(5)
'00003'
>>> n = '3'
>>> str(n).zfill(5)
'00003'
>>> n = '3.0'
>>> str(n).zfill(5)
'003.0'
>>> '99'.zfill(5)
'00099'
>>> '99'.rjust(5,'0')
'00099'
if you want the opposite:
>>> '99'.ljust(5,'0')
'99000'
You could also repeat “0”, prepend it to str(n)
and get the rightmost width slice. Quick and dirty little expression.
def pad_left(n, width, pad="0"):
return ((pad * width) + str(n))[-width:]
For Python 3.6+ using f-strings:
>>> i = 1
>>> f"{i:0>2}" # Works for both numbers and strings.
'01'
>>> f"{i:02}" # Works only for numbers.
'01'
For Python 2.6 to Python 3.5:
>>> "{:0>2}".format("1") # Works for both numbers and strings.
'01'
>>> "{:02}".format(1) # Works only for numbers.
'01'
Those standard format specifiers are [[fill]align][minimumwidth]
and [0][minimumwidth]
.
For the ones who came here to understand and not just a quick answer.
I do these especially for time strings:
hour = 4
minute = 3
"{:0>2}:{:0>2}".format(hour,minute)
# prints 04:03
"{:0>3}:{:0>5}".format(hour,minute)
# prints '004:00003'
"{:0<3}:{:0<5}".format(hour,minute)
# prints '400:30000'
"{:$<3}:{:#<5}".format(hour,minute)
# prints '4$$:3####'
“0” symbols what to replace with the “2” padding characters, the default is an empty space
“>” symbols allign all the 2 “0” character to the left of the string
“:” symbols the format_spec
Quick timing comparison:
setup = '''
from random import randint
def test_1():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return str(num).zfill(7)
def test_2():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return format(num, '07')
def test_3():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return '{0:07d}'.format(num)
def test_4():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return format(num, '07d')
def test_5():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return '{:07d}'.format(num)
def test_6():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return '{x:07d}'.format(x=num)
def test_7():
num = randint(0,1000000)
return str(num).rjust(7, '0')
'''
import timeit
print timeit.Timer("test_1()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_2()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_3()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_4()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_5()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_6()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
print timeit.Timer("test_7()", setup=setup).repeat(3, 900000)
> [2.281613943830961, 2.2719342631547077, 2.261691106209631]
> [2.311480238815406, 2.318420542148333, 2.3552384305184493]
> [2.3824197456864304, 2.3457239951596485, 2.3353268829498646]
> [2.312442972404032, 2.318053102249902, 2.3054072168069872]
> [2.3482314132374853, 2.3403386400002475, 2.330108825844775]
> [2.424549090688892, 2.4346475296851438, 2.429691196530058]
> [2.3259756401716487, 2.333549212826732, 2.32049893822186]
I’ve made different tests of different repetitions. The differences are not huge, but in all tests, the zfill
solution was fastest.
What is the most pythonic way to pad a numeric string with zeroes to the left, i.e., so the numeric string has a specific length?
str.zfill
is specifically intended to do this:
>>> '1'.zfill(4)
'0001'
Note that it is specifically intended to handle numeric strings as requested, and moves a +
or -
to the beginning of the string:
>>> '+1'.zfill(4)
'+001'
>>> '-1'.zfill(4)
'-001'
Here’s the help on str.zfill
:
>>> help(str.zfill)
Help on method_descriptor:
zfill(...)
S.zfill(width) -> str
Pad a numeric string S with zeros on the left, to fill a field
of the specified width. The string S is never truncated.
Performance
This is also the most performant of alternative methods:
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '1'.zfill(4)))
0.18824880896136165
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '1'.rjust(4, '0')))
0.2104538488201797
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: f'{1:04}'))
0.32585487607866526
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '{:04}'.format(1)))
0.34988890308886766
To best compare apples to apples for the %
method (note it is actually slower), which will otherwise pre-calculate:
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '1'.zfill(0 or 4)))
0.19728074967861176
>>> min(timeit.repeat(lambda: '%04d' % (0 or 1)))
0.2347015216946602
Implementation
With a little digging, I found the implementation of the zfill
method in Objects/stringlib/transmogrify.h
:
static PyObject *
stringlib_zfill(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
Py_ssize_t fill;
PyObject *s;
char *p;
Py_ssize_t width;
if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "n:zfill", &width))
return NULL;
if (STRINGLIB_LEN(self) >= width) {
return return_self(self);
}
fill = width - STRINGLIB_LEN(self);
s = pad(self, fill, 0, '0');
if (s == NULL)
return NULL;
p = STRINGLIB_STR(s);
if (p[fill] == '+' || p[fill] == '-') {
/* move sign to beginning of string */
p[0] = p[fill];
p[fill] = '0';
}
return s;
}
Let’s walk through this C code.
It first parses the argument positionally, meaning it doesn’t allow keyword arguments:
>>> '1'.zfill(width=4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: zfill() takes no keyword arguments
It then checks if it’s the same length or longer, in which case it returns the string.
>>> '1'.zfill(0)
'1'
zfill
calls pad
(this pad
function is also called by ljust
, rjust
, and center
as well). This basically copies the contents into a new string and fills in the padding.
static inline PyObject *
pad(PyObject *self, Py_ssize_t left, Py_ssize_t right, char fill)
{
PyObject *u;
if (left < 0)
left = 0;
if (right < 0)
right = 0;
if (left == 0 && right == 0) {
return return_self(self);
}
u = STRINGLIB_NEW(NULL, left + STRINGLIB_LEN(self) + right);
if (u) {
if (left)
memset(STRINGLIB_STR(u), fill, left);
memcpy(STRINGLIB_STR(u) + left,
STRINGLIB_STR(self),
STRINGLIB_LEN(self));
if (right)
memset(STRINGLIB_STR(u) + left + STRINGLIB_LEN(self),
fill, right);
}
return u;
}
After calling pad
, zfill
moves any originally preceding +
or -
to the beginning of the string.
Note that for the original string to actually be numeric is not required:
>>> '+foo'.zfill(10)
'+000000foo'
>>> '-foo'.zfill(10)
'-000000foo'
Another approach would be to use a list comprehension with a condition checking for lengths. Below is a demonstration:
# input list of strings that we want to prepend zeros
In [71]: list_of_str = ["101010", "10101010", "11110", "0000"]
# prepend zeros to make each string to length 8, if length of string is less than 8
In [83]: ["0"*(8-len(s)) + s if len(s) < desired_len else s for s in list_of_str]
Out[83]: ['00101010', '10101010', '00011110', '00000000']
When using Python >= 3.6
, the cleanest way is to use f-strings with string formatting:
>>> s = f"{1:08}" # inline with int
>>> s
'00000001'
>>> s = f"{'1':0>8}" # inline with str
>>> s
'00000001'
>>> n = 1
>>> s = f"{n:08}" # int variable
>>> s
'00000001'
>>> c = "1"
>>> s = f"{c:0>8}" # str variable
>>> s
'00000001'
I would prefer formatting with an int
, since only then the sign is handled correctly:
>>> f"{-1:08}"
'-0000001'
>>> f"{1:+08}"
'+0000001'
>>> f"{'-1':0>8}"
'000000-1'
Its ok too:
h = 2
m = 7
s = 3
print("%02d:%02d:%02d" % (h, m, s))
so output will be: “02:07:03”
I made a function :
def PadNumber(number, n_pad, add_prefix=None):
number_str = str(number)
paded_number = number_str.zfill(n_pad)
if add_prefix:
paded_number = add_prefix+paded_number
print(paded_number)
PadNumber(99, 4)
PadNumber(1011, 8, "b'")
PadNumber('7BEF', 6, "#")
The output :
0099
b'00001011
#007BEF
I am adding how to use a int from a length of a string within an f-string because it didn’t appear to be covered:
>>> pad_number = len("this_string")
11
>>> s = f"{1:0{pad_number}}" }
>>> s
'00000000001'
For numbers:
i = 12
print(f"{i:05d}")
Output
00012
If you’re looking to pad an integer, and limit the significant figures at the same time (with f strings):
a = 4.432
>> 4.432
a = f'{a:04.1f}'
>> '04.4'
f'{a:04.1f}'
this translates to 1 decimal/(float) point, left pad the digit until 4 characters total.