title: String formatting in Python: can I use %s for all types?
body: <p>When doing <strong>string formatting</strong> in Python, I noticed that <code>%s</code> transforms also numbers to strings.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; a = 1
  &gt;&gt;&gt; b = 1.1
  &gt;&gt;&gt; c = 'hello'
  &gt;&gt;&gt; print 'Integer: %s; Float: %s; String: %s' % (a, b, c)
  Integer: 1; Float: 1.1; String: hello
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I don't know for other variable types, but is it safe to use <code>%s</code> like this? </p>
  
  <p>It is certainly quicker than specifying always the type each time.</p>