what does %s mean in python?
<answer> '%s' indicates a conversion type of 'string' when using python's string formatting capabilities. <context> up vote 7 down vote. '%s' indicates a conversion type of 'string' when using python's string formatting capabilities. More specifically, '%s' converts a specified value to a string using the str() function. Compare this with the '%r' conversion type that uses the repr() function for value conversion.