from pathlib import Path current_file = Path("file_io.ipynb").resolve() print(f"current file: {current_file}") # Note: in .py files you can get the path of current file by Path(__file__) current_dir = current_file.parent print(f"current directory: {current_dir}") data_dir = current_dir.parent / "data" print(f"data directory: {data_dir}") current file: /Users/jerrypussinen/github/jerry-git/learn-python3/notebooks/beginner/notebooks/file_io.ipynb current directory: /Users/jerrypussinen/github/jerry-git/learn-python3/notebooks/beginner/notebooks data directory: /Users/jerrypussinen/github/jerry-git/learn-python3/notebooks/beginner/data
print(f"exists: {data_dir.exists()}") print(f"is file: {data_dir.is_file()}") print(f"is directory: {data_dir.is_dir()}") exists: True is file: False is directory: True
file_path = data_dir / "simple_file.txt" with open(file_path) as simple_file: for line in simple_file: print(line.strip()) First line Second line Third And so the story goes!
The with statement is for obtaining a context manager that will be used as an execution context for the commands inside the with. Context managers guarantee that certain operations are done when exiting the context.
In this case, the context manager guarantees that simple_file.close() is implicitly called when exiting the context. This is a way to make developers life easier: you don't have to remember to explicitly close the file you openened nor be worried about an exception occuring while the file is open. Unclosed file maybe a source of a resource leak. Thus, prefer using with open() structure always with file I/O.
To have an example, the same as above without the with.
file_path = data_dir / "simple_file.txt" # THIS IS NOT THE PREFERRED WAY simple_file = open(file_path) for line in simple_file: print(line.strip()) simple_file.close() # This has to be called explicitly First line Second line Third And so the story goes!
new_file_path = data_dir / "new_file.txt" with open(new_file_path, "w") as my_file: my_file.write("This is my first file that I wrote with Python.") Now go and check that there is a new_file.txt in the data directory. After that you can delete the file by:
if new_file_path.exists(): # make sure it's there new_file_path.unlink()