bpo-38657: Clarify numeric padding behaviour in string formatting (GH-17036)

miss-islington · JamoBox · web-flow · commit 09db1da63f86 · 2020-02-20T22:05:58.000-08:00
Make the definition of the width more explicit that it includes any extra signs added by other options. https://bugs.python.org/issue38657 Automerge-Triggered-By: @Mariatta (cherry picked from commit 424e568) Co-authored-by: Pete Wicken <2273100+JamoBox@users.noreply.github.com>
diff --git a/Doc/library/string.rst b/Doc/library/string.rst
@@ -416,8 +416,9 @@ error.
 .. versionchanged:: 3.6
    Added the ``'_'`` option (see also :pep:`515`).
 
-*width* is a decimal integer defining the minimum field width.  If not
-specified, then the field width will be determined by the content.
+*width* is a decimal integer defining the minimum total field width,
+including any prefixes, separators, and other formatting characters.
+If not specified, then the field width will be determined by the content.
 
 When no explicit alignment is given, preceding the *width* field by a zero
 (``'0'``) character enables
