Read

Reading files is a common operation in Python. We often need to read data from text files, CSV files, or other types of files for data processing or other operations. The Python read() function is used to read the content of a file.

Opening a File#

Before a file can be read, it needs to be opened. This is done with the open() function. It takes two parameters: file name and mode. The ‘r’ mode is used for reading.

1file = open("example.txt", 'r')

Reading a File#

Once the file is opened, we can read it. Python provides several methods to do this.

The read() Method#

This method reads the entire content of the file.

1file = open("example.txt", 'r')
2print(file.read())

The readline() Method#

This method reads a single line from the file.

1file = open("example.txt", 'r')
2print(file.readline())

Continously calling readline() reads subsequent lines.

1file = open("example.txt", 'r')
2print(file.readline())
3print(file.readline())

The readlines() Method#

This method returns a list where each element is a line in the file.

1file = open("example.txt", 'r')
2print(file.readlines())

Closing a File#

After reading a file, it’s a good practice to close it. You can close a file using the close() method.

1file = open("example.txt", 'r')
2print(file.read())
3file.close()

Using with Statement#

The with statement in Python is generally used for exception handling or cleanup tasks. You can use it to read a file. This method also automatically closes the file once the operations are completed.

1with open("example.txt", 'r') as file:
2    print(file.read())