Padding and truncating strings combined

Say you want to print variables in a 3 character column.

Note: doubling \{ and \} escapes them.

s = """

pad
{{:3}}             :{a:3}:

truncate
{{:.3}}            :{e:.3}:

combined
{{:>3.3}}          :{a:>3.3}:
{{:3.3}}           :{a:3.3}:
{{:3.3}}           :{c:3.3}:
{{:3.3}}           :{e:3.3}:
"""

print (s.format(a="1"*1, c="3"*3, e="5"*5))

Output:

pad
{:3}             :1  :

truncate
{:.3}            :555:

combined
{:>3.3}          :  1:
{:3.3}           :1  :
{:3.3}           :333:
{:3.3}           :555:

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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