Programming using Python
Course Code: DAL1003
Section D
File Management – open, close, read, write, append (on text files).
Text files: reading/writing text and numbers from/to a file; creating and reading a
formatted file (csv or tab-separated).
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Python - File Management - open()
File management in Python allows you to work with files such as reading, writing, appending, and modifying
them. Python provides built-in functions and methods to perform file operations easily and efficiently.
Opening Files (open() function): takes two parameters; filename or file-path, and mode.
Syntax: open(filename or file path, mode)
filename or file path: The name of the file (including its path if not in the same directory).
mode: Specifies the mode in which the file should be opened. Common modes include:
'r': Read (default mode, if not specified).
'w': Write (creates a new file or truncates (deletes previous content) an existing one).
'a': Append (adds content to the end of an existing file).
'r+': Read and write.
'b': Binary mode (e.g., 'rb' or 'wb' for reading and writing binary files).
#Example: Both statement are same, as default mode is ‘r’ or read.
file1 = open("demofile.txt")
file1 = open("demofile.txt", "r")
# If the file is NOT present in the same directory as your python programming file.
file1 = open("D:\\myfiles\demofile.txt", "r")
Python - File Management - read() and close()
Reading Files: You can read a file's content using various methods:
read(): Reads the entire file content.
readline(): Reads one line at a time.
readlines(): Reads all lines into a list.
# Opening and reading a file
file = open('example.txt', 'r')
content = file.read() # Reads the entire file content
#content = file.readline() # Reads just one line
#content = file.readlines() # Reads all lines but as a list with each line as elements.
print(content)
file.close() # Important! Always close the file after utilizing it.
#OR with keyword can be used, to open and automatically close files after accessing them.
with open('example.txt', 'r') as file:
content = file.read()
#content = file.readline()
#content = file.readlines()
print(content) # No need to manually close the file
Python - File Management - write() and close()
Writing Files: To write to a file, you can use the write() method.
When writing, the file must be opened in 'w' (write) or 'a' (append) mode.
Note: In Write mode ('w'): If the file exists, its content will be overwritten; if it doesn't exist, a new file will be created.
with open('example.txt', 'w') as file:
file.write("This is a new line of text.\n")
file.write("Adding another line.")
Note: In Append mode ('a'): If the file exists, new content is added at the end. If it doesn’t exist, a new file is created.
with open('example.txt', 'a') as file:
file.write("\nAppending this text to the file.")
Closing Files (close() method): It's crucial to close files after you're done with them to free up system resources. You
can manually close a file using the close() method:
file = open('example.txt', 'r')
content = file.read()
file.close() # Always close the file when done
Python - File Management - csv module - Read CSV files
The csv module in Python is part of the standard library and provides tools for reading
from and writing to CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files. CSV files are widely used for
storing tabular data, and Python's csv module makes it easy to parse, manipulate, and
save such data.
Reading CSV files: Supports reading CSV files row by row, or as a dictionary with headers.
Writing CSV files: Allows you to write data to CSV files with different delimiters.
Customizing Delimiters: You can change the default comma delimiter to other characters (e.g.,
semicolons, tab-spaces).
import csv
with open('data.csv', mode = 'r') as file:
reader = csv.reader(file)
for row in reader:
print(row) # Each row is a list of strings
# Changing delimiter to semicolon, instead of comma
with open('data_semicolon.csv', mode = 'r') as file:
reader = csv.reader(file, delimiter=';')
for row in reader:
print(row) # Each row is a list of strings
Python - File Management - csv module - Writing data to a CSV file
import csv
data = [
['Name', 'Age', 'Country'],
['Alice', 30, 'USA'],
['Bob', 25, 'Canada'],
['Charlie', 35, 'UK']
]
with open('output.csv', mode='w') as file:
writer = csv.writer(file)
writer.writerows(data) # Write multiple rows
with open('output_semicolon.csv', mode='w') as file:
writer = csv.writer(file, delimiter=';')
writer.writerows(data) # Writes with semicolons
Python - File Management - csv module - for Tab separated files
The csv module in Python is typically used for comma-separated values (CSV) files, but
it can be easily adapted to handle tab-separated values (TSV) files by specifying the
delimiter as a tab (\t).
import csv
# Open the TSV file
with open('data.tsv', mode='r') as file:
reader = csv.reader(file, delimiter='\t')
# Read and print each row
for row in reader:
print(row) # Each row is a list of values (strings)
# Data to be written to the TSV file
data = [ ['Name', 'Age', 'Country'],
['Alice', 30, 'USA'] ]
# Open the TSV file for writing
with open('output.tsv', mode='w') as file:
writer = csv.writer(file, delimiter='\t')
writer.writerows(data) # Write multiple rows to the file
