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File Handling Notes

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Pallavi K Pyati
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22 views

File Handling Notes

Uploaded by

Pallavi K Pyati
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Python provides several ways to manipulate files.

Today, we will discuss how to


handle files in Python.
Opening a File
Before we can perform any operations on a file, we must first open it. Python
provides the open() function to open a file. It takes two arguments: the name of
the file and the mode in which the file should be opened. The mode can be 'r' for
reading, 'w' for writing, or 'a' for appending.
Here's an example of how to open a file for reading:
f = open('myfile.txt', 'r')
By default, the open() function returns a file object that can be used to read from
or write to the file, depending on the mode.
Modes in file
There are various modes in which we can open files.
read (r): This mode opens the file for reading only and gives an error if the file
does not exist. This is the default mode if no mode is passed as a parameter.
write (w): This mode opens the file for writing only and creates a new file if the
file does not exist.
append (a): This mode opens the file for appending only and creates a new file
if the file does not exist.
create (x): This mode creates a file and gives an error if the file already exists.
text (t): Apart from these modes we also need to specify how the file must be
handled. t mode is used to handle text files. t refers to the text mode. There is no
difference between r and rt or w and wt since text mode is the default. The
default mode is 'r' (open for reading text, synonym of 'rt' ).
binary (b): used to handle binary files (images, pdfs, etc).
Reading from a File
Once we have a file object, we can use various methods to read from the file.
The read() method reads the entire contents of the file and returns it as a string.
f = open('myfile.txt', 'r')
contents = f.read()
print(contents)
Writing to a File
To write to a file, we first need to open it in write mode.
f = open('myfile.txt', 'w')

We can then use the write() method to write to the file.


f = open('myfile.txt', 'w')
f.write('Hello, world!')
Keep in mind that writing to a file will overwrite its contents. If you want to
append to a file instead of overwriting it, you can open it in append mode.
f = open('myfile.txt', 'a')
f.write('Hello, world!')
Closing a File
It is important to close a file after you are done with it. This releases the
resources used by the file and allows other programs to access it.
To close a file, you can use the close() method.
f = open('myfile.txt', 'r')
# ... do something with the file
f.close()
The 'with' statement
Alternatively, you can use the with statement to automatically close the file after
you are done with it.
with open('myfile.txt', 'r') as f:
# ... do something with the file
readlines() method
The readline() method reads a single line from the file. If we want to read
multiple lines, we can use a loop.
f = open('myfile.txt', 'r')
while True:
line = f.readline()
if not line:
break
print(line)
The readlines() method reads all the lines of the file and returns them as a list of
strings.
writelines() method
The writelines() method in Python writes a sequence of strings to a file. The
sequence can be any iterable object, such as a list or a tuple.
Here's an example of how to use the writelines() method:
f = open('myfile.txt', 'w')
lines = ['line 1\n', 'line 2\n', 'line 3\n']
f.writelines(lines)
f.close()
This will write the strings in the lines list to the file myfile.txt. The \n characters
are used to add newline characters to the end of each string.
Keep in mind that the writelines() method does not add newline characters
between the strings in the sequence. If you want to add newlines between the
strings, you can use a loop to write each string separately:
f = open('myfile.txt', 'w')
lines = ['line 1', 'line 2', 'line 3']
for line in lines:
f.write(line + '\n')
f.close()
It is also a good practice to close the file after you are done with it.

seek() and tell() functions


In Python, the seek() and tell() functions are used to work with file objects and their positions within a
file. These functions are part of the built-in io module, which provides a consistent interface for
reading and writing to various file-like objects, such as files, pipes, and in-memory buffers.

seek() function
The seek() function allows you to move the current position within a file to a specific point. The
position is specified in bytes, and you can move either forward or backward from the current position.
For example:
with open('file.txt', 'r') as f:
# Move to the 10th byte in the file
f.seek(10)

# Read the next 5 bytes


data = f.read(5)

tell() function
The tell() function returns the current position within the file, in bytes. This can be useful for keeping
track of your location within the file or for seeking to a specific position relative to the current
position. For example:
with open('file.txt', 'r') as f:
# Read the first 10 bytes
data = f.read(10)

# Save the current position


current_position = f.tell()

# Seek to the saved position


f.seek(current_position)

truncate() function
When you open a file in Python using the open function, you can specify the mode in which you want
to open the file. If you specify the mode as 'w' or 'a', the file is opened in write mode and you can
write to the file. However, if you want to truncate the file to a specific size, you can use the truncate
function.
Here is an example of how to use the truncate function:
with open('sample.txt', 'w') as f:
f.write('Hello World!')
f.truncate(5)

with open('sample.txt', 'r') as f:


print(f.read())

1.Create a python program to Merge Two Files and merge the data and print the merged data in the new
file?

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