formats are pretty primitive. You'd be better off your spending time learning about printf than to learn about format workarounds like the kludge I'm about to show you:

USGS @<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 239=@@ 
$file2{$grid}, $method, '@'
[download]

Yeah, ugly, and that's the only way to do that one. The "escape" mechanism is to provide constant text in the value list. Bleh.

I'll repeat this again strongly:

• learn to use printf for anything that isn't immediately obvious with formats—do not waste your time trying to learn format workarounds.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker