Learn Python the Hard Way: A Deceptively Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Data Science, 5th Edition

Exercise 16

Reading and Writing Files

If you did the Study Drills from the previous exercise, you should have seen all sorts of commands (methods/functions) you can give to files. Here’s the list of commands I want you to remember:

• close—Closes the file. Like File->Save in a text editor or word processor.

• read—Reads the contents of the file. You can assign the result to a variable.

• readline—Reads just one line of a text file.

• truncate—Empties the file. Watch out if you care about the file.

• write('stuff')—Writes “stuff” to the file.

• seek(0)—Move the read/write location to the beginning of the file.

One way to remember what each of these does is to think of a vinyl record, cassette tape, VHS tape, DVD, or CD player. In the early days of computers ...