What does this syntax mean in string formatting in Python?

Question

I saw the syntax below in a tutorial

print("{0:>2} in binary is {0:>08b}".format(100))

I was wondering what does the greater equal sign (>) does?

and is it necessary to use it?

because when I used it like this

print("{0:2} in binary is {0:08b}".format(100))

it produced the same result as the first one I mentioned above

> means right-aligned as opposed to <, left-aligned. Right-aligned is the default for numbers anyway. See docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatspec — khelwood
– khelwood, Commented May 5, 2021 at 15:22
Better than the official docs in this case pyformat.info/#string_pad_align — wim
– wim, Commented May 5, 2021 at 15:26

khelwood · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-05 15:26:46Z

2

> means right-aligned as opposed to <, left-aligned. Right-aligned is the default for numbers anyway. See https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatspec:

>

Forces the field to be right-aligned within the available space (this is the default for numbers).

answered May 5, 2021 at 15:26

khelwood

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