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Python File Handling - Writing, Appending, Deleting and File Methods

Python File Handling – Writing, Appending, Deleting and File Methods

In this part, we’ll explore important functions on file handling and auxiliary methods.

Table of Contents

Writing into File

To write into file use w as the mode of access and call write() function to the file object bypassing content to write.

file_res = open('m/test.txt', 'w')
print(file_res.write("New \n Data \n\t Updated."))
file_res.close()

#PYTHON OUTPUT
22 #Returns number of characters written to file.

Appending Content to File

We’ll be using the mode of access a to append additional data to the file.

file_res = open('m/test.txt', 'a')
print(file_res.write("New  data appended"))
file_res.close()
    
#PYTHON OUTPUT
18 #Returns number of characters written to file.

Deleting Files

To Unlink or delete a file from a directory there are a couple of different options explained below.

1) The os.remove() function this removes a file in a given path. If the file does not exist then it raises FileNotFoundError an exception.
If trying to remove the only directory than it raises IsADirectoryError exception.
Syntax

os.remove(path, *, dir_fd=None)

Example

import os
res = os.remove('m/test.txt')
print(res)

2) The os.unlink() function is similar to os.remove() a function. The unlink is a traditional name in the UNIX system for the deletion of a file.
Syntax

os.unlink(path, *, dir_fd=None)
import os
res = os.unlink('m/test.txt')
print(res)

Other File Auxilary Methods

Here we’ll discuss some helpful file functions.

Extending the use of Mode of Access for a file.

The r+: Adding + addition operator after r we can read and write to the file at the same time.

path = 'm/test.txt'

file_res = open(path, 'r+')
print('File Object : {}'.format(file_res))
print('Is File Writable : {}'.format(file_res.readable()))
print('Is File Readable : {}'.format(file_res.writable()))

contents = file_res.read()
print('File Contents : {}\n'.format(contents))


file_res.write("New data has added to this file.")
new_contents = file_res.read()
print('File Contents : {}'.format(new_contents))

#PYTHON OUTPUT
File Object : <_io.TextIOWrapper name='m/test.txt' mode='r+' encoding='UTF-8'>
Is File Writable : True
Is File Readable : True

File Contents : This is a text file

New File Contents : This is a text file
New data has added to this file.

Return File Encoding Type

This returns file encode type.

path = 'm/test.txt'
file_res = open(path, 'r')

print("The encoding of file is `{}` ".format(file_res.encoding))

#PYTHON OUTPUT
The encoding of file is `UTF-8` 

Return given File Path

path = 'm/test.txt'
file_res = open(path, 'r')
print("The given file path is `{}`".format(file_res.name))

#PYTHON OUTPUT
The given file path is `m/test.txt`

Check if File is open or closed

The closed attribute return a boolean value. If True than the file is opened or else False means the file has closed.

path = 'm/test.txt'
file_res = open(path, 'r')
print("Is File Closed : {}".format(file_res.closed))

#PYTHON OUTPUT
Is File Closed : False

Truncate File Contents

Calling the truncate(pos) function on the file object removes all the content inside the file.

path = 'm/test.txt'
file_res = open(path, 'r+')

print("File Contents : {}\n".format(file_res.read()))
file_res.truncate(0)
file_res.seek(0)
print("New File Contents : {}\n".format(file_res.read()))
    
#PYTHON OUTPUT
File Contents : This is Text File


New File Contents : 
Note: You can pass an optional argument size to truncate() function to skip some content and remove the rest of others.
path = 'm/test.txt'
file_res = open(path, 'r+')

print("File Contents : {}\n".format(file_res.read()))
file_res.truncate(10)
file_res.seek(0)
print("New File Contents : {}\n".format(file_res.read()))
    
#PYTHON OUTPUT
File Contents : This is Text File

New File Contents : This is Te

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