Any way the wind blows

written by Graham Knapp on 2019-03-20

Adding leading zeros with Python

Various ways to add leading zeros to a number, for instance a wind direction, using Python. Available as a Jupyter Notebook

Generate a list of wind directions

First some definitions. The wind direction is measured in degrees clockwise from north and represents the direction the wind is blowing from. For instance an easterly wind, i.e. wind blowing from the east has a direction of 90 degrees. Let's generate 16 wind directions from 0 (north) to 337.5 (north by northwest).

interval = 22.5  # degrees
assert 360 % interval < 0.001
n = int(360/interval)

directions = [interval * x for x in range(n)]
print(directions)

[0.0,
 22.5,
 45.0,
 67.5,
...
 337.5]

String zfill method

No doubt the most pythonic way to add leading zeros to a bare string, the built-in str.zfill() method is designed to do just that.

for dir_ in directions:
    print(str(int(dir_)).zfill(3), str(dir_).zfill(5))

We can immediately see our first quirk: the integer representation truncates decimal values rather than rounding up (as I learned to do at school) or rounding towards the nearest even number (as the Python round() funtion would do).

String slicing

Very fast and arguably even more readable for people with a good understanding of basic python syntax but no desire to read the docs or explore the obscure corners of the language. Add the maximum possible number of leading zeros and then slice the desired number of digits.

for direction in directions:
    print(('00'+str(int(direction)))[-3:],
    ('00'+str(direction))[-5:])

String format : integers

As part of a longer string this allows the number to be inserted with leading zeros. Compatible with all current versions of Python.

for direction in directions:
    print('Int: {:03d} | Float: {:05.1f}'.
        format(
        int(direction), direction)
        )

  Int: 000  |  Float: 000.0
  Int: 022  |  Float: 022.5
  Int: 045  |  Float: 045.0
  Int: 067  |  Float: 067.5
  Int: 090  |  Float: 090.0
  Int: 112  |  Float: 112.5
  Int: 135  |  Float: 135.0
  Int: 157  |  Float: 157.5
  Int: 180  |  Float: 180.0
  Int: 202  |  Float: 202.5
  Int: 225  |  Float: 225.0
  Int: 247  |  Float: 247.5
  Int: 270  |  Float: 270.0
  Int: 292  |  Float: 292.5
  Int: 315  |  Float: 315.0
  Int: 337  |  Float: 337.5

F Strings

From Python 3.6 this is even terser.

for dir_ in directions:
    print(f'Int: {int(dir_):03d} | Float: {dir_:05.1f}')

  Int: 000  |  Float: 000.0
  Int: 022  |  Float: 022.5
  Int: 045  |  Float: 045.0
  Int: 067  |  Float: 067.5
  Int: 090  |  Float: 090.0
  Int: 112  |  Float: 112.5
  Int: 135  |  Float: 135.0
  Int: 157  |  Float: 157.5
  Int: 180  |  Float: 180.0
  Int: 202  |  Float: 202.5
  Int: 225  |  Float: 225.0
  Int: 247  |  Float: 247.5
  Int: 270  |  Float: 270.0
  Int: 292  |  Float: 292.5
  Int: 315  |  Float: 315.0
  Int: 337  |  Float: 337.5

Class

By overloading the built-in __str__() method for the class we can create our own custom string representation of the value.

class WindRecord(int):
    def __init__(self, direction):
        self.direction = direction

    def __str__(self):
        return f'Wind direction: {self.direction:05.1f} °'


for direction in directions:
    d = WindRecord(direction)
    print(d)

    Wind direction: 000.0 °
    Wind direction: 022.5 °
    Wind direction: 045.0 °
    Wind direction: 067.5 °
    Wind direction: 090.0 °
    Wind direction: 112.5 °
    Wind direction: 135.0 °
    Wind direction: 157.5 °
    Wind direction: 180.0 °
    Wind direction: 202.5 °
    Wind direction: 225.0 °
    Wind direction: 247.5 °
    Wind direction: 270.0 °
    Wind direction: 292.5 °
    Wind direction: 315.0 °
    Wind direction: 337.5 °

Thanks to @clement for comments