Is there a reason why the "alternate format" isn't documented for float conversions in http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq-strings.html ? '%#8.f' % 1.0 keeps the decimal point while '%8.f' % 1.0 drops it. Also, for %g the alternate form keeps trailing zeroes. While at it, I noticed a difference between %f and %g: '%.3f' % 1.123 is "1.123" while '%.3g' % 1.123 is "1.12". Is that intentional? Georg