In Python, %s is a placeholder used in format strings for string interpolation, where it is replaced by a string representation of a value. It is part of old-style string formatting (also called printf-style formatting).
Example:
name = “Alice”
greeting = “Hello, %s!” % name
print(greeting) # Output: Hello, Alice!
In this example, %s is replaced by the value of the name variable (“Alice”). This works for any object, as Python will convert the object to its string representation using str() before replacing %s.
While %s is still valid, Python’s newer f-string formatting (available in Python 3.6+) is recommended for readability and efficiency:
greeting = f”Hello, {name}!”