What is the % operator in `string % variables`?
<p>I thought that <code>%</code> (modulo) returned remainders from division but saw this working piece of code and now I'm confused. </p>

<p>Here's the code:</p>

<pre><code>prices = {
    "banana" : 4,
    "apple" : 2,
    "orange" : 1.5,
    "pear" : 3
}

stock = {
    "banana" : 6,
    "apple" : 0,
    "orange" : 32,
    "pear" : 15
}

for key in prices:
    print key
    print "price: %s" % prices[key]
    print "stock: %s" % stock[key]
</code></pre>

<p>My question is specifically about the last 3 lines. What does the <code>%</code> do here?</p>