Positional formatting is a technique in Python for inserting variable values into a string using placeholders that are replaced by the values at runtime. This technique is useful for creating formatted output that includes variable data.

The basic syntax for positional formatting is to use curly braces {} as placeholders in the string, and to pass the values to be inserted as arguments to the format() method. Here is an example:

name = "Alice"
age = 25
occupation = "programmer"
output = "My name is {}, I am {} years old, and I work as a {}.".format(name, age, occupation)
print(output) # Output: "My name is Alice, I am 25 years old, and I work as a programmer."

In this example, the placeholders {} are used to indicate where the variable values should be inserted into the string. The values are passed as arguments to the format() method, and the resulting string is stored in the output variable.

You can also use indexing to specify the position of the values to be inserted. For example:

name = "Bob"
age = 30
occupation = "teacher"
output = "My name is {0}, I am {1} years old, and I work as a {2}.".format(name, age, occupation)
print(output) # Output: "My name is Bob, I am 30 years old, and I work as a teacher."

In this example, the placeholders are numbered {0}, {1}, and {2} to indicate the position of the values to be inserted. The values are passed as arguments to the format() method in the order indicated by the placeholders.

Positional formatting is a powerful technique for creating formatted output in Python. It allows you to insert variable data into a string in a flexible and customizable way.