Python File Handling

File handling is an important part of any web application.

Python has several functions for creating, reading, updating, and deleting files.

File Handling

The key function for file handling in Python is open() function.

open() The function has two parameters: filename and mode.

There are four different ways to open files (modes):

  • "r" - Read - Default value. Open the file for reading and report an error if the file does not exist.
  • "a" - Append - Open the file for appending and create the file if it does not exist.
  • "w" - Write - Open the file for writing and create the file if it does not exist.
  • "x" - Create - Create the specified file and return an error if the file exists.

In addition, you can specify whether the file should be processed as binary or text mode.

  • "t" - Text - Default value. Text mode.
  • "b" - Binary - Binary mode (e.g., images).

Syntax

In addition, you can specify whether the file should be processed as binary or text mode:

f = open("demofile.txt")

The above code is equivalent to:

f = open("demofile.txt", "rt")

Because "r" (Read) and "t" (Text) is the default value, so there is no need to specify them.

Note:Please ensure that the file exists, otherwise you will receive an error message.