If I run
file = open("BAL.txt","w")
I = '200'
file.write(I)
file.close
from a script, it outputs nothing in the file. (It literally overwrites the file with nothing)
Furthermore, running cat BAL.txt just goes to the next line like nothing is in the file.
But if I run it line by line in a python console it works perfectly fine.
Why does this happen. ( I am a begginner learning python the mistake may be super obvious. I have thrown about 2 hours into trying to figure this out)
Thanks in advance
You aren't closing your file properly. To close it you are missing the () at the end of file.close so it should look like this:
file = open("BAL.txt", "w")
file.write("This has been written to a file")
file.close()
This site has the same example and may be of some use to you.
Another way, especially useful when you are appending multiple values into a single file is to use something like with open("BAL.txt","w") as file:. Here is your script rewritten to include this example:
I = '200'
with open("BAL.txt","w") as file:
file.write(I)
This opens our file with the value file and allows us to write values to it. Also note that file.close() is not needed here and when appending text w+ needs to be used.
to write to a file you do this:
file = open("file.txt","w")
file.write("something")
file.close()
when you use file.write() it deletes all of the contents of the file, if you want to write to the end of the file do this:
file = open("file.text","w+")
file.write(file.read()+"something")
file.close()
There are other ways to do this but this one is the most intuitive (not the most efficient), also the other way tends to be buggy so there is no reason to post it because this is reliable.
Firstly, you're missing the parentheses when you're closing the file. Secondly, writing to a file should be done like this:
file = open("BAL.txt", "w")
file.write("This has been written to a file")
file.close()
Let me know if you have any questions.
Related
I'm learning Python right now, and am trying to learn file handling using PyCharm CE on MacOS. While trying to open or create a new file, I get an error that goes something like this -
io.UnsupportedOperation: not readable
My code looks something like this:
import os
print (os.path.abspath(os.curdir))
fhand = open("file1.rtf", "w")
for line in fhand:
if line.startswith("from :") :
line = line.strip()
print(line)
How do I open a file and write something within it? And what is wrong with this code?
You opened the file in the wrong mode. This has nothing to do with PyCharm, but with your code :)
If you open a file in python (or most other programming languages), you have to specify, whether you want to read it or write it. You have more options than that, but let's keep it simple.
To do so, you use the second argument of the open() function, in your case "w", which stands for write.
If you want to read, change it to "r":
fhand = open("file1.rtf", "r")
If you want to read and write, you may use something like w+. To get an overview, you may find this diagram useful.
From the docs:
open() returns a file object, and is most commonly used with two arguments: open(filename, mode).
f = open('workfile', 'w')
The first argument is a string containing the filename. The second argument is another string containing a few characters describing the way in which the file will be used. mode can be 'r' when the file will only be read, 'w' for only writing (an existing file with the same name will be erased), and 'a' opens the file for appending; any data written to the file is automatically added to the end. 'r+' opens the file for both reading and writing. The mode argument is optional; 'r' will be assumed if it’s omitted.
As part of a bigger project, I would simply like to make sure that a file can be opened and Python can read and use it. So after I opened up the txt file, I said:
data = txtfile.read()
first_line = data.split('\n',1)[2]
print(first_line)
I also tried
print(f1.readline())
where f1 is the txt file. This, again, did nothing.
I am using the spyder IDE, and it just says running file, and doesn't print anything. Is it because my file is too large? It is 4.6 gigs.
Does anyone have any idea what's going on?
and it just says running file, and doesn't print anything. Is it
because my file is too large? It is 4.6 gigs.
Yes.
data = txtfile.read()
This function is going to read the entire file. Since you stated that the file is 4.6GB, it is going to take time to load the entire file and then split the by newline character.
See this: Read large text files in Python
I don't know your context of use, so, if you can process line by line, it would be simpler. Or even chunks would make it simpler than reading the entire file.
first_line = open('myfile.txt', 'r').readline()
def ConvertFile():
FileNameIn = 'Hexdata.dat'
HexFile = open(FileNameIn, 'r')
for Line in HexFile:
print (Line)
print (Binary(Line))
HexFile.close()
So far I have that, which, when the program is run, converts the Hexidecimal number in the file to binary. This is in a file called Hexdata.dat
What I want to do is then save the binary output into a file called Binarydata.dat
How would I approach this in code? Be aware I'm new with Python and haven't covered this properly. I've tried different bits of code but they've all been unsuccessful, as really, they're all guesses.
I'm not asking you to solve the problem for me, but more asking how I would save the output of a program into a new text file.
You're already most of the way there. You already know how to open a file for reading:
HexFile = open(FileNameIn, 'r')
The 'r' there means "open for reading". If you look at the documentation for the open function, you will see that replacing the r with a w will open a file for writing:
OutputFile = open(FileNameOut, 'w')
And then you can send output to it like this:
print >>OutputFile, "Something to print"
Or use the write method on the file object:
OutputFile.write("Something to print\n")
Read the documentation of the open function (to open the file in write mode) and File Objects (to write information to the opened file).
You have to have 2 files in this script. The one you're reading from and the one you're writing to. Use the option wb (write binary) when opening the file you are going to write into. These two links should help a beginner with little or no Python knowledge complete your exercise: Intro to File Objects and Tutorial on File I/O.
You are currently opening the file in reading mode, so in order to write to the file, you would want to open the file with the buffering mode as ('w'). Quote from: http://docs.python.org. You can do so easily by replacing your 'r' with 'w'.
'w' for writing (truncating the file if it already exists
For more reference see open(name[, mode[, buffering]])
# the file name
FileNameIn = 'Hexdata.dat'
# create a file object: open it with "write" mode
HexFile = open(FileNameIn,"w")
for line in HexFile:
HexFile.write(Binary(line))
HexFile.close()
Have you tried using open('Binarydata.dat', 'w') for writing to the file? There are plenty of ways to write to a file, most of which can be found here: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/inputoutput.html
I'm attempting to do a "find and replace" in a file on a Mac OS X computer. Although it appears to work correctly. It seems that the file is somehow altered. The text editor that I use (Text Wrangler) is unable to even open the file once this is completed.
Here is the code as I have it:
import fileinput
for line in fileinput.FileInput("testfile.txt",inplace=1):
line = line.replace("newhost",host)
print line,
When I view the file from the terminal, it does say "testfile" may be a binary file. See it anyway? Is there a chance that this replace is corrupting the file? Do I have another option for this to work? I really appreciate the help.
Thank you,
Aaron
UPDATE: the actual file is NOT a .txt file it is a .plist file which is preference file in Mac OS X if that makes any difference
LINK to plist file:
http://www.queencitytech.com/plist.zip
Your code worked for me fine. However, I would suggest a different approach: don't try overwriting the file directly. I never like changing the file directly because if you have a bug or something like that the file is lost. Generate a new file then copy it over manually (or within python, if you really want to).
PATH = 'testfile.txt'
FILE = open(PATH)
OUT_FILE = open('out_' + PATH, 'w')
for line in FILE.readlines():
print >> OUT_FILE, line.replace('newhost', host),
Try using sys.stdout.write instead of print. readlines() retains the new line characters at the end of the read line. The print statement adds an additional new line character, so it's likely double spacing the file.
I have text file which I want to erase in Python. How do I do that?
In python:
open('file.txt', 'w').close()
Or alternatively, if you have already an opened file:
f = open('file.txt', 'r+')
f.truncate(0) # need '0' when using r+
Opening a file in "write" mode clears it, you don't specifically have to write to it:
open("filename", "w").close()
(you should close it as the timing of when the file gets closed automatically may be implementation specific)
Not a complete answer more of an extension to ondra's answer
When using truncate() ( my preferred method ) make sure your cursor is at the required position.
When a new file is opened for reading - open('FILE_NAME','r') it's cursor is at 0 by default.
But if you have parsed the file within your code, make sure to point at the beginning of the file again i.e truncate(0)
By default truncate() truncates the contents of a file starting from the current cusror position.
A simple example
As #jamylak suggested, a good alternative that includes the benefits of context managers is:
with open('filename.txt', 'w'):
pass
When using with open("myfile.txt", "r+") as my_file:, I get strange zeros in myfile.txt, especially since I am reading the file first. For it to work, I had to first change the pointer of my_file to the beginning of the file with my_file.seek(0). Then I could do my_file.truncate() to clear the file.
Writing and Reading file content
def writeTempFile(text = None):
filePath = "/temp/file1.txt"
if not text: # If not provided return file content
f = open(filePath, "r")
slug = f.read()
return slug
else:
f = open(filePath, "a") # Create a blank file
f.seek(0) # sets point at the beginning of the file
f.truncate() # Clear previous content
f.write(text) # Write file
f.close() # Close file
return text
It Worked for me
If security is important to you then opening the file for writing and closing it again will not be enough. At least some of the information will still be on the storage device and could be found, for example, by using a disc recovery utility.
Suppose, for example, the file you're erasing contains production passwords and needs to be deleted immediately after the present operation is complete.
Zero-filling the file once you've finished using it helps ensure the sensitive information is destroyed.
On a recent project we used the following code, which works well for small text files. It overwrites the existing contents with lines of zeros.
import os
def destroy_password_file(password_filename):
with open(password_filename) as password_file:
text = password_file.read()
lentext = len(text)
zero_fill_line_length = 40
zero_fill = ['0' * zero_fill_line_length
for _
in range(lentext // zero_fill_line_length + 1)]
zero_fill = os.linesep.join(zero_fill)
with open(password_filename, 'w') as password_file:
password_file.write(zero_fill)
Note that zero-filling will not guarantee your security. If you're really concerned, you'd be best to zero-fill and use a specialist utility like File Shredder or CCleaner to wipe clean the 'empty' space on your drive.
You have to overwrite the file. In C++:
#include <fstream>
std::ofstream("test.txt", std::ios::out).close();
You can also use this (based on a few of the above answers):
file = open('filename.txt', 'w')
file.close()
of course this is a really bad way to clear a file because it requires so many lines of code, but I just wrote this to show you that it can be done in this method too.
happy coding!
You cannot "erase" from a file in-place unless you need to erase the end. Either be content with an overwrite of an "empty" value, or read the parts of the file you care about and write it to another file.
Assigning the file pointer to null inside your program will just get rid of that reference to the file. The file's still there. I think the remove() function in the c stdio.h is what you're looking for there. Not sure about Python.
Since text files are sequential, you can't directly erase data on them. Your options are:
The most common way is to create a new file. Read from the original file and write everything on the new file, except the part you want to erase. When all the file has been written, delete the old file and rename the new file so it has the original name.
You can also truncate and rewrite the entire file from the point you want to change onwards. Seek to point you want to change, and read the rest of file to memory. Seek back to the same point, truncate the file, and write back the contents without the part you want to erase.
Another simple option is to overwrite the data with another data of same length. For that, seek to the exact position and write the new data. The limitation is that it must have exact same length.
Look at the seek/truncate function/method to implement any of the ideas above. Both Python and C have those functions.
This is my method:
open the file using r+ mode
read current data from the file using file.read()
move the pointer to the first line using file.seek(0)
remove old data from the file using file.truncate(0)
write new content and then content that we saved using file.read()
So full code will look like this:
with open(file_name, 'r+') as file:
old_data = file.read()
file.seek(0)
file.truncate(0)
file.write('my new content\n')
file.write(old_data)
Because we are using with open, file will automatically close.