SWE225

Introduction to
Programming and Problem Solving
COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS (CTI)
Topics of Discussion
• Writing to files
• Reading from files
Introduction
• Before you read from or write to a file in Python, you need to create a handle to
that file. A handle is somewhat like a TV remote control

• We may ask a handle to do:

• Read a line
• Read all lines in file
• Write a line
• Write multiple lines

• There are three stages:

• Open the file
• Read from /write to file
• Close the file
Reading the Complete File
• The function open creates a
handle to a file. Parameters are:
• file name
• access mode
• File name should include path if
files are not in the same folder
• Access mode is specified by a
letter: r = read, whereas w = write)
# open hello.txt to read from
handle = open ("hello.txt", "r")
# read all content of the file
text = handle.read( )
# print variable text to screen
print( text )
# close file
handle.close( )
Reading one Line
• The function readline reads one
line from an opened file
• If you call readline again, it will read
the second line of the file and so on
# open hello.txt to read from
handle = open("hello.txt", "r")
# read one line from the file
line = handle.readline( )
# print line to screen
print( line )
# close file
handle.close( )
Reading All Lines as a List
You can use readlines( ) to read all
lines as a list of strings as:
linesList = handle.readlines( )
# open hello.txt to read from
handle = open("hello.txt", "r")
# read all lines from the file
linesList = handle.readlines( )
# print line to screen
print( linesList )
# close file
handle.close( )
Reading Line by Line
# open hello.txt to read from
• You can use a loop to read all lines handle = open("hello.txt", "r")
of a file, one by one for line in handle:
# print line to screen
• Simplest way is to use a for in loop, print( line )
where in each iteration you access
one line # close hello.txt
handle.close( )
Writing a Line to a File
• To write to a file, you need to use # open hello.txt to read from
the open function and specify handle = open("hello.txt", "w")
access mode to be "w"
# write a line to the file
handle.write("I like Python!")
• If the file does not exist, Python will
create it for you # close hello.txt
handle.close( )
• If the file exists, Python will clear it
and start at the beginning
Writing Multiple Lines Iteratively
• Use a loop to write multiple lines to
a file
linesList = [ ”Salam Students\n",
"I want to practice Python\n",
"Files operations are easy\n"]
handle = open( "hello.txt", "w" )
for line in linesList :
# write a line to the file
handle.write( line )
# close hello.txt
handle.close( )
Writing Multiple Lines at once
• You can write multiple lines at
once using writelines function
• If the file does not exist, Python
will create it for you
• If the file exists, Python will clear
it and start at the beginning
lines = [ " Salam Students \n",
"I need to practice Python\n",
"Files operations are easy\n"]
# open hello.txt to read from
handle = open( "hello.txt", "w" )
# write a line to the file
handle.writelines( lines )
# close hello.txt
handle.close( )
Appending a Line to a File
• To open a file and append lines to
it, the access mode should be "a"
• Python will add whatever lines
you write to the end of the file
lines = [ "Salam Students \n",
"I need to practice Python\n",
"Files operations are easy\n"]
# open hello.txt to read from
handle = open( "hello.txt", "a" )
# append lines to the file
handle.writelines( lines )
# close hello.txt
handle.close( )