data types here are some examples that show the effects of the sign characters"[{ }[{ }]format( - space or sign ' [- ]"[{ :+}[{ :+}]format( - force sign '[+ [- ]"[{ :-}[{ :-}]format( - sign if needed '[ [- ]and here are two examples that use some of the type characters"{ : { : { : { : }format( ' deface deface"{ :# { :# { :# { :# }format( ' xdeface xdefaceit is not possible to specify maximum field width for integers this is because doing so might require digits to be chopped offthereby rendering the integer meaningless if we are using python and use comma in the format specificationthe integer will use commas for grouping for example"{ :,' , , { :*> ,}format(int( )**** , , both fields have grouping appliedand in additionthe second field is padded with *sright alignedand given minimum width of characters this is very convenient for many scientific and financial programsbut it does not take into account the current locale for examplemany continental europeans would expect the thousands separator to be and the decimal separator to be the last format character available for integers (and which is also available for floating-point numbersis this has the same effect as when given an integer and the same effect as when given floating-point number what makes special is that it respects the current localeand will use the locale-specific decimal separator and grouping separator in the output it produces the default locale is called the localeand for this the decimal and grouping characters are period and an empty string we can respect the user' locale by starting our programs with the following two lines as the first executable statementsimport locale locale setlocale(locale lc_all""in multithreaded programs it is best to call locale setlocale(only onceat program start-upand before any additional threads have been startedsince the function is not usually thread-safe