code: public static String simpleFormat(final String format, final Object... args) {
          String retVal = format;
          for (final Object current : args) {
              String argString = null;
              try {
                  argString = StringUtils.substring(java.util.Objects.toString(current), 0, 256);
                  retVal = retVal.replaceFirst("[%][sdf]", argString);
              } catch (final Exception e) {
                  argString = "Ups";
                  retVal = retVal.replaceFirst("[%][sdf]", argString);
              }
          }
          return retVal;
      }
docs: Simple replacement for String.format(), works only with %s but it's enough for logging or exceptions.
  
  @param  format
  A <a href="../util/Formatter.html#syntax">format string</a>
  
  @param  args
  Arguments referenced by the format specifiers in the format
  string.  If there are more arguments than format specifiers, the
  extra arguments are ignored.  The number of arguments is
  variable and may be zero.  The maximum number of arguments is
  limited by the maximum dimension of a Java array as defined by
  <cite>The Java&trade; Virtual Machine Specification</cite>.
  The behaviour on a
  <tt>null</tt> argument depends on the <a
  href="../util/Formatter.html#syntax">conversion</a>.
  @return  A formatted string