There is also the parse module.
parse() is designed to be the opposite of format() (the newer string formatting function in Python 2.6 and higher).
>>> from parse import parse
>>> parse('{} fish', '1')
>>> parse('{} fish', '1 fish')
<Result ('1',) {}>
>>> parse('{} fish', '2 fish')
<Result ('2',) {}>
>>> parse('{} fish', 'red fish')
<Result ('red',) {}>
>>> parse('{} fish', 'blue fish')
<Result ('blue',) {}>