Question

Faulty code:

pos_1 = 234
pos_n = 12890
min_width = len(str(pos_n)) # is there a better way for this?

# How can I use min_width as the minimal width of the two conversion specifiers?
# I don't understand the Python documentation on this :(
raw_str = '... from %(pos1)0*d to %(posn)0*d ...' % {'pos1':pos_1, 'posn': pos_n}

Required output:

... from 00234 to 12890 ...

           ______________________EDIT______________________

New code:

# I changed my code according the second answer
pos_1 = 10234 # can be any value between 1 and pos_n
pos_n = 12890
min_width = len(str(pos_n))

raw_str = '... from % *d to % *d ...' % (min_width, pos_1, min_width, pos_n)

New Problem:

There is one extra whitespace (I marked it _) in front of the integer values, for intigers with min_width digits:

print raw_str
... from _10234 to _12890 ...

Also, I wonder if there is a way to add Mapping keys?

Answer 1

pos_1 = 234
pos_n = 12890
min_width = len(str(pos_n))

raw_str = '... from %0*d to %0*d ...' % (min_width, pos_1, min_width, pos_n)