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Reading the last line of an empty file on python

I have this function on my code that is supposed to read a files last line, and if there is no file create one. My issue is when it creates the files and tries to read the last line it comes up as an error.
with open(HIGH_SCORES_FILE_PATH, "w+") as file:
last_line = file.readlines()[-1]
if last_line == '\n':
with open(HIGH_SCORES_FILE_PATH, 'a') as file:
file.write('Jogo:')
file.write('\n')
file.write(str(0))
file.write('\n')
I have tried multiple ways of reading the last line but all of the ones I've tried ends in an error.

Opening a file in "w+" erases any content in the file. readlines() returns an empty list and trying to get value results in an IndexError. You can test for a file's existence with os.path.exists or os.path.isfile, or you could use an exception handler to deal with that case.
Start with last_line set to a sentinel value. If the open fails, or if no lines are read, last_line will not be updated and you can base file creation on that.
last_line = None
try:
with open(HIGH_SCORES_FILE_PATH) as file:
for last_line in file:
pass
except OSError:
pass
if last_line is None:
with open(HIGH_SCORES_FILE_PATH, "w") as file:
file.write('Jogo:\n0\n')
last_line = '0\n'

How can I create a new text file in python

I made this program it takes user input and outputs it in a new text file.
output = input('Insert your text')
f = open("text.txt", "a")
f.write(output)
This code will take a users input and prints it in a new text file. But if the file already exists in the path, the python code will just append to the file. I want the code to create a new file in the path every time the program is run. So the first time the code is run it will be displayed as text.txt, and the second time it runs it should output a new file called text(1).txt and so on.

Start by checking if test.txt exists. If it does, with a loop, check for test(n).txt, with n being some positive integer, starting at 1.
from os.path import isfile
output = input('Insert your text')
newFileName = "text.txt"
i = 1
while isfile(newFileName):
newFileName = "text({}).txt".format(i)
i += 1
f = open(newFileName, "w")
f.write(output)
f.close()
Eventually, the loop will reach some n, for which the filename test(n).txt doesn't exist and will save the file with that name.

Check if the file you are trying to create already exists. If yes, then change the file name, else write text to the file.
import os
output = input('Insert your text ')
filename = 'text.txt'
i = 1
while os.path.exists(filename):
filename = 'text ('+str(i)+').txt'
i += 1
f = open(filename, "a")
f.write(output)

Check if file already exists
import os.path
os.path.exists('filename-here.txt')
If file exists then create file with another filename (eg - appending the filename with date & time or any number etc)

A problem with checking for existence is that there can be a race condition if two processes try to create the same file:
process 1: does file exist? (no)
process 2: does file exist? (no)
process 2: create file for writing ('w', which truncates if it exists)
process 2: write file.
process 2: close file.
process 1: create same file for writing ('w', which truncates process 2's file).
A way around this is mode 'x' (open for exclusive creation, failing if the file already exists), but in the scenario above that would just make process 1 get an error instead of truncating process 2's file.
To open the file with an incrementing filename as the OP described, this can be used:
import os
def unique_open(filename):
# "name" contains everything up to the extension.
# "ext" contains the last dot(.) and extension, if any
name,ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
n = 0
while True:
try:
return open(filename,'x')
except FileExistsError:
n += 1
# build new filename with incrementing number
filename = f'{name}({n}){ext}'
file = unique_open('test.txt')
file.write('content')
file.close()
To make the function work with a context manager ("with" statement), a contextlib.contextmanager can be used to decorate the function and provide automatic .close() of the file:
import os
import contextlib
#contextlib.contextmanager
def unique_open(filename):
n = 0
name,ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
try:
while True:
try:
file = open(filename,'x')
except FileExistsError:
n += 1
filename = f'{name}({n}){ext}'
else:
print(f'opened {filename}') # for debugging
yield file # value of with's "as".
break # open succeeded, so exit while
finally:
file.close() # cleanup when with block exits
with unique_open('test.txt') as f:
f.write('content')
Demo:
C:\>test.py
opened test.txt
C:\>test
opened test(1).txt
C:\>test
opened test(2).txt

Not able to fix file handling issue in python

I wrote python code to search a pattern in a tcl file and replace it with a string, it prints the output but the same is not saved in the tcl file
import re
import fileinput
filename=open("Fdrc.tcl","r+")
for i in filename:
if i.find("set qa_label")!=-1:
print(i)
a=re.sub(r'REL.*','harsh',i)
print(a)
filename.close()
actual result
set qa_label
REL_ts07n0g42p22sadsl01msaA04_2018-09-11-11-01
set qa_label harsh
Expected result is that in my file it should reflect the same result as above but it is not

You need to actually write your changes back to disk if you want to see them affected there. As #ImperishableNight says, you don't want to do this by trying to write to a file you're also reading from...you want to write to a new file. Here's an expanded version of your code that does that:
import re
import fileinput
fin=open("/tmp/Fdrc.tcl")
fout=open("/tmp/FdrcNew.tcl", "w")
for i in fin:
if i.find("set qa_label")!=-1:
print(i)
a=re.sub(r'REL.*','harsh',i)
print(a)
fout.write(a)
else:
fout.write(i)
fin.close()
fout.close()
Input and output file contents:
> cat /tmp/Fdrc.tcl
set qa_label REL_ts07n0g42p22sadsl01msaA04_2018-09-11-11-01
> cat /tmp/FdrcNew.tcl
set qa_label harsh
If you wanted to overwrite the original file, then you would want to read the entire file into memory and close the input file stream, then open the file again for writing, and write modified content to the same file.
Here's a cleaner version of your code that does this...produces an in memory result and then writes that out using a new file handle. I am still writing to a different file here because that's usually what you want to do at least while you're testing your code. You can simply change the name of the second file to match the first and this code will overwrite the original file with the modified content:
import re
lines = []
with open("/tmp/Fdrc.tcl") as fin:
for i in fin:
if i.find("set qa_label")!=-1:
print(i)
i=re.sub(r'REL.*','harsh',i)
print(i)
lines.append(i)
with open("/tmp/FdrcNew.tcl", "w") as fout:
fout.writelines(lines)

Open a tempfile for writing the updated file contents and open the file for writing.
After modifying the lines, write it back in the file.
import re
import fileinput
from tempfile import TemporaryFile
with TemporaryFile() as t:
with open("Fdrc.tcl", "r") as file_reader:
for line in file_reader:
if line.find("set qa_label") != -1:
t.write(
str.encode(
re.sub(r'REL.*', 'harsh', str(line))
)
)
else:
t.write(str.encode(line))
t.seek(0)
with open("Fdrc.tcl", "wb") as file_writer:
file_writer.writelines(t)

How to edit a file in python without a temporary sacrificial file? [duplicate]

I'm using Python, and would like to insert a string into a text file without deleting or copying the file. How can I do that?

Unfortunately there is no way to insert into the middle of a file without re-writing it. As previous posters have indicated, you can append to a file or overwrite part of it using seek but if you want to add stuff at the beginning or the middle, you'll have to rewrite it.
This is an operating system thing, not a Python thing. It is the same in all languages.
What I usually do is read from the file, make the modifications and write it out to a new file called myfile.txt.tmp or something like that. This is better than reading the whole file into memory because the file may be too large for that. Once the temporary file is completed, I rename it the same as the original file.
This is a good, safe way to do it because if the file write crashes or aborts for any reason, you still have your untouched original file.

Depends on what you want to do. To append you can open it with "a":
with open("foo.txt", "a") as f:
f.write("new line\n")
If you want to preprend something you have to read from the file first:
with open("foo.txt", "r+") as f:
old = f.read() # read everything in the file
f.seek(0) # rewind
f.write("new line\n" + old) # write the new line before

The fileinput module of the Python standard library will rewrite a file inplace if you use the inplace=1 parameter:
import sys
import fileinput
# replace all occurrences of 'sit' with 'SIT' and insert a line after the 5th
for i, line in enumerate(fileinput.input('lorem_ipsum.txt', inplace=1)):
sys.stdout.write(line.replace('sit', 'SIT')) # replace 'sit' and write
if i == 4: sys.stdout.write('\n') # write a blank line after the 5th line

Rewriting a file in place is often done by saving the old copy with a modified name. Unix folks add a ~ to mark the old one. Windows folks do all kinds of things -- add .bak or .old -- or rename the file entirely or put the ~ on the front of the name.
import shutil
shutil.move(afile, afile + "~")
destination= open(aFile, "w")
source= open(aFile + "~", "r")
for line in source:
destination.write(line)
if <some condition>:
destination.write(<some additional line> + "\n")
source.close()
destination.close()
Instead of shutil, you can use the following.
import os
os.rename(aFile, aFile + "~")

Python's mmap module will allow you to insert into a file. The following sample shows how it can be done in Unix (Windows mmap may be different). Note that this does not handle all error conditions and you might corrupt or lose the original file. Also, this won't handle unicode strings.
import os
from mmap import mmap
def insert(filename, str, pos):
if len(str) < 1:
# nothing to insert
return
f = open(filename, 'r+')
m = mmap(f.fileno(), os.path.getsize(filename))
origSize = m.size()
# or this could be an error
if pos > origSize:
pos = origSize
elif pos < 0:
pos = 0
m.resize(origSize + len(str))
m[pos+len(str):] = m[pos:origSize]
m[pos:pos+len(str)] = str
m.close()
f.close()
It is also possible to do this without mmap with files opened in 'r+' mode, but it is less convenient and less efficient as you'd have to read and temporarily store the contents of the file from the insertion position to EOF - which might be huge.

As mentioned by Adam you have to take your system limitations into consideration before you can decide on approach whether you have enough memory to read it all into memory replace parts of it and re-write it.
If you're dealing with a small file or have no memory issues this might help:
Option 1)
Read entire file into memory, do a regex substitution on the entire or part of the line and replace it with that line plus the extra line. You will need to make sure that the 'middle line' is unique in the file or if you have timestamps on each line this should be pretty reliable.
# open file with r+b (allow write and binary mode)
f = open("file.log", 'r+b')
# read entire content of file into memory
f_content = f.read()
# basically match middle line and replace it with itself and the extra line
f_content = re.sub(r'(middle line)', r'\1\nnew line', f_content)
# return pointer to top of file so we can re-write the content with replaced string
f.seek(0)
# clear file content
f.truncate()
# re-write the content with the updated content
f.write(f_content)
# close file
f.close()
Option 2)
Figure out middle line, and replace it with that line plus the extra line.
# open file with r+b (allow write and binary mode)
f = open("file.log" , 'r+b')
# get array of lines
f_content = f.readlines()
# get middle line
middle_line = len(f_content)/2
# overwrite middle line
f_content[middle_line] += "\nnew line"
# return pointer to top of file so we can re-write the content with replaced string
f.seek(0)
# clear file content
f.truncate()
# re-write the content with the updated content
f.write(''.join(f_content))
# close file
f.close()

Wrote a small class for doing this cleanly.
import tempfile
class FileModifierError(Exception):
pass
class FileModifier(object):
def __init__(self, fname):
self.__write_dict = {}
self.__filename = fname
self.__tempfile = tempfile.TemporaryFile()
with open(fname, 'rb') as fp:
for line in fp:
self.__tempfile.write(line)
self.__tempfile.seek(0)
def write(self, s, line_number = 'END'):
if line_number != 'END' and not isinstance(line_number, (int, float)):
raise FileModifierError("Line number %s is not a valid number" % line_number)
try:
self.__write_dict[line_number].append(s)
except KeyError:
self.__write_dict[line_number] = [s]
def writeline(self, s, line_number = 'END'):
self.write('%s\n' % s, line_number)
def writelines(self, s, line_number = 'END'):
for ln in s:
self.writeline(s, line_number)
def __popline(self, index, fp):
try:
ilines = self.__write_dict.pop(index)
for line in ilines:
fp.write(line)
except KeyError:
pass
def close(self):
self.__exit__(None, None, None)
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
with open(self.__filename,'w') as fp:
for index, line in enumerate(self.__tempfile.readlines()):
self.__popline(index, fp)
fp.write(line)
for index in sorted(self.__write_dict):
for line in self.__write_dict[index]:
fp.write(line)
self.__tempfile.close()
Then you can use it this way:
with FileModifier(filename) as fp:
fp.writeline("String 1", 0)
fp.writeline("String 2", 20)
fp.writeline("String 3") # To write at the end of the file

If you know some unix you could try the following:
Notes: $ means the command prompt
Say you have a file my_data.txt with content as such:
$ cat my_data.txt
This is a data file
with all of my data in it.
Then using the os module you can use the usual sed commands
import os
# Identifiers used are:
my_data_file = "my_data.txt"
command = "sed -i 's/all/none/' my_data.txt"
# Execute the command
os.system(command)
If you aren't aware of sed, check it out, it is extremely useful.

Creating new text file in Python?

Is there a method of creating a text file without opening a text file in "w" or "a" mode? For instance If I wanted to open a file in "r" mode but the file does not exist then when I catch IOError I want a new file to be created
e.g.:
while flag == True:
try:
# opening src in a+ mode will allow me to read and append to file
with open("Class {0} data.txt".format(classNo),"r") as src:
# list containing all data from file, one line is one item in list
data = src.readlines()
for ind,line in enumerate(data):
if surname.lower() and firstName.lower() in line.lower():
# overwrite the relevant item in data with the updated score
data[ind] = "{0} {1}\n".format(line.rstrip(),score)
rewrite = True
else:
with open("Class {0} data.txt".format(classNo),"a") as src:
src.write("{0},{1} : {2}{3} ".format(surname, firstName, score,"\n"))
if rewrite == True:
# reopen src in write mode and overwrite all the records with the items in data
with open("Class {} data.txt".format(classNo),"w") as src:
src.writelines(data)
flag = False
except IOError:
print("New data file created")
# Here I want a new file to be created and assigned to the variable src so when the
# while loop iterates for the second time the file should successfully open

At the beginning just check if the file exists and create it if it doesn't:
filename = "Class {0} data.txt"
if not os.path.isfile(filename):
open(filename, 'w').close()
From this point on you can assume the file exists, this will greatly simplify your code.

No operating system will allow you to create a file without actually writing to it. You can encapsulate this in a library so that the creation is not visible, but it is impossible to avoid writing to the file system if you really want to modify the file system.
Here is a quick and dirty open replacement which does what you propose.
def open_for_reading_create_if_missing(filename):
try:
handle = open(filename, 'r')
except IOError:
with open(filename, 'w') as f:
pass
handle = open(filename, 'r')
return handle

Better would be to create the file if it doesn't exist, e.g. Something like:
import sys, os
def ensure_file_exists(file_name):
""" Make sure that I file with the given name exists """
(the_dir, fname) = os.path.split(file_name)
if not os.path.exists(the_dir):
sys.mkdirs(the_dir) # This may give an exception if the directory cannot be made.
if not os.path.exists(file_name):
open(file_name, 'w').close()
You could even have a safe_open function that did something similar prior to opening for read and returning the file handle.

The sample code provided in the question is not very clear, specially because it invokes multiple variables that are not defined anywhere. But based on it here is my suggestion. You can create a function similar to touch + file open, but which will be platform agnostic.
def touch_open( filename):
try:
connect = open( filename, "r")
except IOError:
connect = open( filename, "a")
connect.close()
connect = open( filename, "r")
return connect
This function will open the file for you if it exists. If the file doesn't exist it will create a blank file with the same name and the open it. An additional bonus functionality with respect to import os; os.system('touch test.txt') is that it does not create a child process in the shell making it faster.
Since it doesn't use the with open(filename) as src syntax you should either remember to close the connection at the end with connection = touch_open( filename); connection.close() or preferably you could open it in a for loop. Example:
file2open = "test.txt"
for i, row in enumerate( touch_open( file2open)):
print i, row, # print the line number and content
This option should be preferred to data = src.readlines() followed by enumerate( data), found in your code, because it avoids looping twice through the file.