Here are the docs about the "new" format syntax. An example would be:

"({:d} goals, ${:d})".format(self.goals, self.penalties)

If both goals and penalties are integers (i.e. their default format is ok), it could be shortened to:

"({} goals, ${})".format(self.goals, self.penalties)

And since the parameters are fields of self, there's also a way of doing it using a single argument twice (as @Burhan Khalid noted in the comments):

"({0.goals} goals, ${0.penalties})".format(self)

Explaining:

• {} means just the next positional argument, with default format;
• {0} means the argument with index 0, with default format;
• {:d} is the next positional argument, with decimal integer format;
• {0:d} is the argument with index 0, with decimal integer format.

There are many others things you can do when selecting an argument (using named arguments instead of positional ones, accessing fields, etc) and many format options as well (padding the number, using thousands separators, showing sign or not, etc). Some other examples:

"({goals} goals, ${penalties})".format(goals=2, penalties=4)
"({goals} goals, ${penalties})".format(**self.__dict__)

"first goal: {0.goal_list[0]}".format(self)
"second goal: {.goal_list[1]}".format(self)

"conversion rate: {:.2f}".format(self.goals / self.shots) # '0.20'
"conversion rate: {:.2%}".format(self.goals / self.shots) # '20.45%'
"conversion rate: {:.0%}".format(self.goals / self.shots) # '20%'

"self: {!s}".format(self) # 'Player: Bob'
"self: {!r}".format(self) # '<__main__.Player instance at 0x00BF7260>'

"games: {:>3}".format(player1.games)  # 'games: 123'
"games: {:>3}".format(player2.games)  # 'games:   4'
"games: {:0>3}".format(player2.games) # 'games: 004'

Note: As others pointed out, the new format does not supersede the former, both are available both in Python 3 and the newer versions of Python 2 as well. Some may say it's a matter of preference, but IMHO the newer is much more expressive than the older, and should be used whenever writing new code (unless it's targeting older environments, of course).

Python 3.6 will add literal string interpolation similar to Ruby's string interpolation. Starting with that version of Python (which is scheduled to be released by the end of 2016), you will be able to include expressions in "f-strings", e.g.

name = "Spongebob Squarepants"
print(f"Who lives in a Pineapple under the sea? {name}.")

Prior to 3.6, the closest you can get to this is

name = "Spongebob Squarepants"
print("Who lives in a Pineapple under the sea? %(name)s." % locals())

The % operator can be used for string interpolation in Python. The first operand is the string to be interpolated, the second can have different types including a "mapping", mapping field names to the values to be interpolated. Here I used the dictionary of local variables locals() to map the field name name to its value as a local variable.

The same code using the .format() method of recent Python versions would look like this:

name = "Spongebob Squarepants"
print("Who lives in a Pineapple under the sea? {name!s}.".format(**locals()))

There is also the string.Template class:

tmpl = string.Template("Who lives in a Pineapple under the sea? $name.")
print(tmpl.substitute(name="Spongebob Squarepants"))

Ok...so, it's kind of easy.

The old method:

num = 6
mystr = 'number is %s' % num
print(mystr) # number is 6

The newer .format method:

num = 6
mystr = "number is {}".format(num)
print(mystr) # number is 6

The .format method using named variable (useful for when sequence can't be depended upon):

num = 6
mystr = "number is {num}".format(num=num)
print(mystr) # number is 6

The shorter f-string method: (thank you @mayur)

num = 6
mystr = f"number is {num}"
print(mystr) # number is 6