CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7file-io
Alias
Alias

Reputation: 413

Opening and reading files

from sys import argv

script, filename = argv

txt = open(filename)

print "Here's your file %r:" % filename
print txt.read()

When I run this code, using the name of a text file as the argument 'ex15_sample.txt' then it returns what is inside the text document.

But when I change the last line to:

print txt

Then it displays this:

<open file 'ex15_sample.txt', mode 'r' at 0x004A6230>

I'm not really sure what the difference is since the txt variable should be opening the file. I understand that the read command reads the file but in the docs it says the open one returns a file object and I'm not sure what this means.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 293

Answers (1)

Paulo Bu
Paulo Bu

Reputation: 29794

open() function will return a file object which representation is indeed: <open file 'ex15_sample.txt', mode 'r' at 0x004A6230>.

In order the get the file's contents you need to read() it. That's why when you print txt.read() you get what you expect.

Upvotes: 5

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