title: How to deal with null values using Python format
body: <p>I'm looking for a way to essentially strip out the extra period if a value is null or None. If <code>myvar</code> doesn't exist, it should print <code>abc.xyz</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>myvar="def"
  print "abc.{0}.xyz".format(myvar)
  abc.def.xyz
  
  myvar=""
  print "abc.{0}.xyz".format(myvar)
  abc..xyz
  </code></pre>