You already know how to

handle files in Python, but do you know how to read

the contents of a file? Being able to read
files is essential when working with store
data in Python. Python offers several built-in functions that make this easier. The
three methods we'll explore
in this video are read, readline, and readlines. Let's start with read.
The read method returns the entire contents
of the file as a string that will contain
all the characters. You can also pass in
an integer to return only the specified number
of characters in the file. The second method to read
files in Python is readline. Let's explore this method. The readline function
returns
a single line as a string. If for example, you have a file with two lines
of texts that say, this is the first line and
this is the second line. The read file function
will return as the output only the
first line of text. This is the first line. The readline function can also include
an integer argument for returning a specified number of characters on a single
line. Let's say you use the
same testing file, but pass an integer of 10, your output will be the first 10
characters of the first line. In this case, the
words, this is, and letters, th, for a total of 10 characters. The third method to
read
files in Python is readlines. Let me demonstrate this method. The readlines method
reads
the entire contents of the file and then returns
it in an ordered list. This allows you to
iterate over the list or pick out specific lines
based on a condition. If for example, you have
a file with four lines of texts and pass a
length condition, the readfiles function
will return the output, all the lines in your file
in the correct order. Files are stored in directories
and they have paths. Reading files from the same
directory is straightforward. You only need the
name of the file. When working with different
locations however, it's important that you
know the difference between absolute and relative paths. Let's start with absolute
paths. Absolute paths contain leading
forward/, or drive label. An absolute file path includes all the information you
need to locate a file, whether you are in that
files directory or not. Relative paths normally don't
contain any reference to the root directory and are normally relative to
the calling file. A relative file path only
includes the information you need to locate a file in your current
working directory. I'm now going to demonstrate how you can read
files in Python. I start with a simple
sample txt file. It just has some texts with a couple of lines
that I'll use in demo some of the options
there are for reading files. I started by using,
with open and I pass in my file name,
which is sample.txt. I just want to read
in the contents, so I set the mode to be r and I sign it to
a file variable. The first option to
read a file is to print the entire
contents of the file. To do this, I use the
function print file.read, and I click on the "run button". Notice that the
entire contents of the file is printed out as is. The second option
allows me to print out only a certain
section of the file. For example, let's say I
only want to print out the quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog. That's 44 characters. I can pass in a parameter
to the read function which tells the function to read
in the first 44 characters. To do this, I enter
the number 44 and you notice that it prints out only the first line
when I click "Run". The way this works
is that it starts at the very beginning based
on the index of 0, and 44 is the last character that needs to be printed out. In
this way, I can control
what sections are printed out. The third option I have
is to read in a line. The function I want is.readline, and it will only take in the
very first line
from the file. I click on "Run"
and it prints out only the first line of
texts within that file. The fourth option is to use the.readlines function that
will return a list of lines. I click on "Run"
and you notice that the text in the file is now
wrapped in square brackets. Lastly, because it's a list, I can assign it to a
variable. For example, I can say data
equals file.readlines. Then I can write a for
loop for x in data. I print the value of x, and then when I click on
"Run" you'll notice that the list items are
printed out line by line. Something to note is that
when you use the with open and you get as file, it returns a list by default. I can
just change
the for loop so that it points to
the file variable. When I click "Run" the
same option is returned. These are just some of
the methods you can use in Python for
reading in files. You should now be able to
describe how to read files in Python and demonstrate how to output different
formats using the read, readline, and
readlines functions.