Alternatives

• ScopeFormatter provides variable interpolation into strings. It is amazingly compact and elegant. Sadly, it only interpolates Python names, not full expressions. say has full expressions, as well as a framework for higher-level printing features beyond ScopeFormatter’s…um…scope.

• interpolate is similar to say.fmt(), in that it can interpolate complex Python expressions, not just names. Its i % "format string" syntax is a little odd, however, in the way that it re-purposes Python’s earlier "C format string" % (values) style % operator. It also depends on the native print statement or function, which doesn’t help bridge Python 2 and 3.

• Even simpler are invocations of % or format() using locals(). E.g.:

  name = "Joe"
  print "Hello, %(name)!" % locals()
  # or
  print "Hello, {name}!".format(**locals())
  

  Unfortunately this has even more limitations than ScopeFormatter: it only supports local variables, not globals or expressions. And the interpolation code seems gratuitous. Simpler:

  say("Hello, {name}!")
  

• In the future, PEP 498 may provided some of the auto-formatting of literal strings that say does now.