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Python Essentials For Dummies
book

Python Essentials For Dummies

by John C. Shovic, Alan Simpson
April 2024
Beginner content levelBeginner
192 pages
3h 46m
English
For Dummies
Audiobook available
Content preview from Python Essentials For Dummies

Chapter 10

Working with External Files

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Working with text and binary files

Bullet Opening, closing, and reading the contents of a file

Bullet Looping through a file

Bullet Reading and copying a binary file

Pretty much everything stored in your computer, be it a document, program, movie, photograph, and more, is stored in a file. Most files are organized into folders (also called directories). You can browse through folders and files by using Finder (on a Mac) or File Explorer or Windows Explorer (in Windows).

Python offers many tools for creating, reading from, and writing to many different kinds of files. In this chapter, you learn the most important skills for using Python code to work with files.

Understanding Text and Binary Files

There are basically two types of files:

  • Text file: Contains plain text characters. When you open a text file in a text editor, it displays human-readable content. The text may not be in a language you know or understand, but you will see mostly normal characters that you can type at any keyboard.
  • Binary file: Stores information in bytes that aren’t quite ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781394263479Purchase Link