CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonfile-io
Brian Takita
Brian Takita

Reputation: 1655

Python's equivalent to Ruby's File.read method

I'm trying to read the contents of a file in a single method call.

I don't want to have to worry about opening the file, reading from the file, and then closing the file (3 method calls).

I just want the content.

In ruby, there is File.read("/path/to/file"), which returns the contents of that file and properly closes it. Is there an equivalent in Python?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 523

Answers (3)

Senthil Kumaran
Senthil Kumaran

Reputation: 56841

You can use a Context Manager in Python, which is available from Python 2.5.

with open('yourfile') as f:
   contents = f.read()

It will automatically, open and close the file for you. The default mode is 'r' which stands for reading.

Upvotes: 3

Baffe Boyois
Baffe Boyois

Reputation: 2150

There is no such function included with Python. It's simple enough to define one, though.

def read_whole_file(path):
    with open(path) as f:
        return f.read()

Upvotes: 2

Guillaume
Guillaume

Reputation: 1032

You can concatenate two instructions to get the same behaviour :/. But then the file isn't properly closed.

file = open("/path/to/file","r").read()

edit: Best option as far as I know leaves you needing 2/3 you mention. Just use the with statement so you don't have to worry about closing said file.

with open("/path/to/file","r") as file:
   text = file.read()

Upvotes: 4

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