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PYTHON - FILES

We all have came across handling files in some way. Be it a '.txt' file or a '.dat' or even a '.py' file that we use to write our Python Programmes.

So, files are something, where we store some information.

Say for example, we want to write the below paragraph to a file.

In a huge pond,
there lived many fish.
They were arrogant and
never listened to anyone.

So, we want to store the four lines in a File and name the File as 'myfirstfile.txt'.

And in general, you need to follow the below steps create the file and write the lines :

You need to open the File in a Notepad or TextEdit and name the file as 'myfirstfile.txt'.
Then you need to write the above four lines.
And close the file once done.

Again, if you want to make some changes to the file(Say adding or deleting a few lines) :

You need to open the existing File 'myfirstfile.txt' in a Notepad or TextEdit.
Make some changes to it.
Close the file.

Similarly, if you want to delete the 'myfirstfile.txt' :

You go to that file and delete it.

Now, let us corelate, how can we achieve the same in Python.

The first thing is to open a file. And to open a file in Python, there is a Function called 'open( )' that accepts two Arguments. They are the name of the file (i.e. 'myfirstfile.txt') and 'Mode'.

A 'Mode' states, what you want to do with the file, once you open it. i.e. You can open a file to read it, to write something to it, to append it and create the file the first time you try opening it.

Below are the file Modes :

"r" - Read Mode - This is the default mode. Used to opens a file for reading and throws an error if the file is not present.
"a" - Append Mode - Append mode is used to write something at the end of the file. And if the file is not present, it creates a new file.
"w" - Write Mode - Write mode is used to write something to the file. It overwrites the contents of the file. And if the file is not present, it creates a new file.
"x" - Create Mode - Create mode is used to create a new file. But if the file is present,it throws an error.

Along with the above four Modes, we can add two more modes :

"t" - Text Mode - This is the default mode. It creates a Text file.
"b" - Binary Mode - It creates a Binary File.

Let us look at the below example to create a File named 'myfirstfile.txt'.

Example :

myfile = open("myfirstfile.txt", "xt")

Now, if you search the above file 'myfirstfile.txt' in the current directory. You can find an empty file 'myfirstfile.txt' in the current folder.

So, in the above example, we have created a blank file called named 'myfirstfile.txt' using the 'open( )' function.

myfile = open("myfirstfile.txt", "xt")

The Function, 'open( )' has two Arguments. First argument is the File name (i.e. 'myfirstfile.txt').And the second Argument is the Mode(i.e. 'xt'). Where 'x' is the Create Mode and 't' is used to create a text file.

Next, let us see, how can we write the above lines to the file myfirstfile.txt.

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