String concatenation vs. string substitution in Python

Question

In Python, the where and when of using string concatenation versus string substitution eludes me. As the string concatenation has seen large boosts in performance, is this (becoming more) a stylistic decision rather than a practical one?

For a concrete example, how should one handle construction of flexible URIs:

DOMAIN = 'http://stackoverflow.com'
QUESTIONS = '/questions'

def so_question_uri_sub(q_num):
    return "%s%s/%d" % (DOMAIN, QUESTIONS, q_num)

def so_question_uri_cat(q_num):
    return DOMAIN + QUESTIONS + '/' + str(q_num)

Edit: There have also been suggestions about joining a list of strings and for using named substitution. These are variants on the central theme, which is, which way is the Right Way to do it at which time? Thanks for the responses!

Answer 1

Concatenation is (significantly) faster according to my machine. But stylistically, I'm willing to pay the price of substitution if performance is not critical. Well, and if I need formatting, there's no need to even ask the question... there's no option but to use interpolation/templating.

>>> import timeit
>>> def so_q_sub(n):
...  return "%s%s/%d" % (DOMAIN, QUESTIONS, n)
...
>>> so_q_sub(1000)
'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1000'
>>> def so_q_cat(n):
...  return DOMAIN + QUESTIONS + '/' + str(n)
...
>>> so_q_cat(1000)
'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1000'
>>> t1 = timeit.Timer('so_q_sub(1000)','from __main__ import so_q_sub')
>>> t2 = timeit.Timer('so_q_cat(1000)','from __main__ import so_q_cat')
>>> t1.timeit(number=10000000)
12.166618871951641
>>> t2.timeit(number=10000000)
5.7813972166853773
>>> t1.timeit(number=1)
1.103492206766532e-05
>>> t2.timeit(number=1)
8.5206360154188587e-06

>>> def so_q_tmp(n):
...  return "{d}{q}/{n}".format(d=DOMAIN,q=QUESTIONS,n=n)
...
>>> so_q_tmp(1000)
'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1000'
>>> t3= timeit.Timer('so_q_tmp(1000)','from __main__ import so_q_tmp')
>>> t3.timeit(number=10000000)
14.564135316080637

>>> def so_q_join(n):
...  return ''.join([DOMAIN,QUESTIONS,'/',str(n)])
...
>>> so_q_join(1000)
'http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1000'
>>> t4= timeit.Timer('so_q_join(1000)','from __main__ import so_q_join')
>>> t4.timeit(number=10000000)
9.4431309007150048