FILE HANDLING IN PYTHON

File handling in Python is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used to perform a wide range of operations.
However, it is important to carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of file handling when writing Python
programs, to ensure that the code is secure, reliable, and performs well.

In this article we will explore Python File Handling, Advantages, Disadvantages and How open, write and append
functions works in python file.

Python File Handling

Python supports file handling and allows users to handle files i.e., to read and write files, along with many other file
handling options, to operate on files. The concept of file handling has stretched over various other languages, but the
implementation is either complicated or lengthy, like other concepts of Python, this concept here is also easy and
short. Python treats files differently as text or binary and this is important. Each line of code includes a sequence of
characters, and they form a text file. Each line of a file is terminated with a special character, called the EOL or End of
Line characters like comma {,} or newline character. It ends the current line and tells the interpreter a new one has
begun. Let’s start with the reading and writing files.

Advantages of File Handling in Python

Versatility: File handling in Python allows you to perform a wide range of operations, such as creating, reading,
writing, appending, renaming, and deleting files.

Flexibility: File handling in Python is highly flexible, as it allows you to work with different file types (e.g. text files,
binary files, CSV files, etc.), and to perform different operations on files (e.g. read, write, append, etc.).

User–friendly: Python provides a user-friendly interface for file handling, making it easy to create, read, and
manipulate files.

Cross-platform: Python file-handling functions work across different platforms (e.g. Windows, Mac, Linux), allowing
for seamless integration and compatibility.

Disadvantages of File Handling in Python

Error-prone: File handling operations in Python can be prone to errors, especially if the code is not carefully written
or if there are issues with the file system (e.g. file permissions, file locks, etc.).

Security risks: File handling in Python can also pose security risks, especially if the program accepts user input that
can be used to access or modify sensitive files on the system.

Complexity: File handling in Python can be complex, especially when working with more advanced file formats or
operations. Careful attention must be paid to the code to ensure that files are handled properly and securely.

Performance: File handling operations in Python can be slower than other programming languages, especially when
dealing with large files or performing complex operations.

For this article, we will consider the following “geeks.txt” file as an example.

Hello world

GeeksforGeeks

123 456
Python File Open

Before performing any operation on the file like reading or writing, first, we have to open that file. For this, we should
use Python’s inbuilt function open() but at the time of opening, we have to specify the mode, which represents the
purpose of the opening file.

f = open(filename, mode)

Where the following mode is supported:

r: open an existing file for a read operation.

w: open an existing file for a write operation. If the file already contains some data, then it will be overridden but if
the file is not present then it creates the file as well.

a: open an existing file for append operation. It won’t override existing data.

r+: To read and write data into the file. This mode does not override the existing data, but you can modify the data
starting from the beginning of the file.

w+: To write and read data. It overwrites the previous file if one exists, it will truncate the file to zero length or create
a file if it does not exist.

a+: To append and read data from the file. It won’t override existing data.

Working in Read mode

There is more than one way to How to read from a file in Python. Let us see how we can read the content of a file in
read mode.

Example 1: The open command will open the Python file in the read mode and the for loop will print each line
present in the file.

# a file named "geek", will be opened with the reading mode.

file = open('geek.txt', 'r')

# This will print every line one by one in the file

for each in file:

print (each)

Output:

Hello world

GeeksforGeeks

123 456
Example 2: In this example, we will extract a string that contains all characters in the Python file then we can use
file.read().

# Python code to illustrate read() mode

file = open("geeks.txt", "r")

print (file.read())

Output:

Hello world

GeeksforGeeks

123 456

Example 3: In this example, we will see how we can read a file using the with statement in Python.

# Python code to illustrate with()

with open("geeks.txt") as file:

data = file.read()

print(data)

Output:

Hello world

GeeksforGeeks

123 456

Example 4: Another way to read a file is to call a certain number of characters like in the following code the
interpreter will read the first five characters of stored data and return it as a string:

# Python code to illustrate read() mode character wise

file = open("geeks.txt", "r")

print (file.read(5))

Output:

Hello
Example 5: We can also split lines while reading files in Python. The split() function splits the variable when space is
encountered. You can also split using any characters as you wish.

# Python code to illustrate split() function

with open("geeks.txt", "r") as file:

data = file.readlines()

for line in data:

word = line.split()

print (word)

Output:

['Hello', 'world']

['GeeksforGeeks']

['123', '456']

Creating a File using the write() Function

Just like reading a file in Python, there are a number of ways to Writing to file in Python. Let us see how we can write
the content of a file using the write() function in Python.

Working in Write Mode

Let’s see how to create a file and how the write mode works.

Example 1: In this example, we will see how the write mode and the write() function is used to write in a file. The
close() command terminates all the resources in use and frees the system of this particular program.

# Python code to create a file

file = open('geek.txt','w')

file.write("This is the write command")

file.write("It allows us to write in a particular file")

file.close()

Output:

This is the write commandIt allows us to write in a particular file

Example 2: We can also use the written statement along with the with() function.
# Python code to illustrate with() alongwith write()

with open("file.txt", "w") as f:

f.write("Hello World!!!")

Output:

Hello World!!!

Working of Append Mode

Let us see how the append mode works.

Example: For this example, we will use the Python file created in the previous example.

# Python code to illustrate append() mode

file = open('geek.txt', 'a')

file.write("This will add this line")

file.close()

Output:

This is the write commandIt allows us to write in a particular fileThis will add this line