Python Data Science File Handling In Python: Open File

Python has several functions for creating, reading, updating, and deleting files.

How to open a file?

The open() function: the open() function is key function for working with files in Python.

It takes two parameters.

1. filename.

2. mode.

There are four different methods (modes) for opening a file in Python.

1. "r" - Read

Default value. Opens a file for reading, error if the file does not exist.

2. "a" Append

Opens a file for appending, creates the file if it does not exist.

3. "w" Write

Opens a file for writing, creates the file if it does not exist.

4. "x" Create

Creates the specified file, returns an error if the file exists.

In addition to the above you can specify if the file should be handled as binary or text mode.

"t" - Text - Default value. Text mode.

"b" - Binary - Binary mode (e.g. images).

Syntax: To open a file for reading it is enough to specify the name of the file

f = open("demofile.txt")

The code above is the same as.

f = open("demofile.txt", "rt")

Where "r" stands for read, and "t" for text are the default values.You do not need to specify them.

Example 1: Read a text file.

Code

f = open("example.txt",
"r")

print(f.read())

the output will be

ILLUSTRATION
This is Line 2.
This is Line 3.
This is Line 4.
This is Line 5.

How to read an image file.?

We have a google badge image saved on our pc, the name of the file is badge.png in order to read this image we will follow the code lines in the example below.

How to read an image file in Python.?

Example 1-B: Read an image file.

Code

# Imports PIL module

from PIL import Image

# used to open different extension image file

im = Image.open
("badge.png")

# shows image in any image viewer

im.show()

the output will be

Note

In order to read an image you will have to import PIL module.

If you do not have PIL already install you can install it with the following command.

pip Install PIL

Writing the above line in the terminal and pressing enter will install PIL on your system.