def _vformat(self, format_string, args, kwargs, used_args, recursion_depth,
                 auto_arg_index=0):
        if recursion_depth < 0:
            raise ValueError('Max string recursion exceeded')
        result = []
        for literal_text, field_name, format_spec, conversion in \
                self.parse(format_string):

            # output the literal text
            if literal_text:
                result.append(literal_text)

            # if there's a field, output it
            if field_name is not None:
                # this is some markup, find the object and do
                #  the formatting

                # handle arg indexing when empty field_names are given.
                if field_name == '':
                    if auto_arg_index is False:
                        raise ValueError('cannot switch from manual field '
                                         'specification to automatic field '
                                         'numbering')
                    field_name = str(auto_arg_index)
                    auto_arg_index += 1
                elif field_name.isdigit():
                    if auto_arg_index:
                        raise ValueError('cannot switch from manual field '
                                         'specification to automatic field '
                                         'numbering')
                    # disable auto arg incrementing, if it gets
                    # used later on, then an exception will be raised
                    auto_arg_index = False

                # given the field_name, find the object it references
                #  and the argument it came from
                obj, arg_used = self.get_field(field_name, args, kwargs)
                used_args.add(arg_used)

                # do any conversion on the resulting object
                obj = self.convert_field(obj, conversion)

                # expand the format spec, if needed
                format_spec, auto_arg_index = self._vformat(
                    format_spec, args, kwargs,
                    used_args, recursion_depth-1,
                    auto_arg_index=auto_arg_index)

                # format the object and append to the result
                result.append(self.format_field(obj, format_spec))

        return ''.join(result), auto_arg_index