{"id":6554,"date":"2018-12-10T04:42:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T04:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/?p=6554"},"modified":"2022-10-09T18:15:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T18:15:19","slug":"python-write-to-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/python-write-to-file\/","title":{"rendered":"How to write content in a file using Python"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Python has built-in support for performing operations like writing in a file, reading, removing etc. I have written detailed tutorials covering these file operations:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/7-examples-python-open-read-write-files-io-file-operations\/\">Open, Read, write and appending \u2013 general overview<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/python-text-file-read\/\">Reading Text Files Tutorial<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/python-delete-file-directory-os-pathlib-shutil\/\">How to delete a file in Python<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In this tutorial, I am specifically explaining how to write content to a text file using Python. Without importing any module, you may use the open() function and depending on the requirement for writing the content, you may specify the mode as mentioned below.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Modes for opening a file for writing new content<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Just to remind, this is how open() function is used:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>open(file, mode=\u2019w\u2019, buffering=-1, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the <strong>mode<\/strong> argument, you may specify the writing option as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u2018w\u2019<\/strong>: This value opens the file in write-only mode. Any existing content in the file is <strong>truncated<\/strong> and new given content is added. If the file already exists, it is over-written. If the specified file does not exist, it creates a new file.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u2018a\u2019<\/strong>: If you want to keep the existing content and add new content from the end of existing content, use the \u2018a\u2019 mode. The value \u2018a\u2019 appends the text in the specified text file.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u2018w+\u2019<\/strong>: For opening a file in read and write mode, use this value. Just like the \u2018w\u2019 value, the \u2018w+\u2019 also overwrites the file if it exists. If the file does not exist then creates a new file.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Note: <\/strong>You may also specify <strong>wb+, ab, ab+<\/strong> for binary format. Since this tutorial is about writing in the text file so I am not covering these values for the mode parameter.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>An example of Python write to file by \u2018w\u2019 value<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In this example, first I opened the text file with \u2018r\u2019 argument value for mode i.e. opening the text file in read mode for showing the existing content.<\/p>\n<p>This is followed by closing the file and reopening in the write mode by using the \u2018w\u2019 value. The <strong>write()<\/strong> function is used for adding new content to the specified text file.<\/p>\n<p>Again, the file is opened by \u2018r\u2019 value and the content of the file is displayed:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\"># A demo of writing content to text file\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReadTxtFile = open(\"write-demo.txt\", \"r\")\r\n\r\ntxtContent = ReadTxtFile.read();\r\n\r\nprint (\"Existing Content : \", txtContent)\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReadTxtFile.close()\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n#File in write mode\r\n\r\nWriteTxtFile = open(\"write-demo.txt\", \"w\")\r\n\r\nWriteTxtFile.write (\"This is new text for the \\n demo of writing in text file.\")\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWriteTxtFile.close()\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n#Reopeing file in read mode\r\n\r\nReadPostWrite = open(\"write-demo.txt\", \"r\")\r\n\r\nContPostWrite = ReadPostWrite.read();\r\n\r\nprint (\"After write() : \", ContPostWrite)\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReadPostWrite.close()<\/pre>\n<p><strong>The output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6555\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/77.1-Python-write-text-file.png\" alt=\"Python write text file\" width=\"443\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/77.1-Python-write-text-file.png 443w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/77.1-Python-write-text-file-300x124.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 443px) 100vw, 443px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can see, the existing content is truncated and new content is added.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The example of Python write to text file in append mode<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>So, you do not want to lose existing content and just require adding the new content in the text file. This is where the <strong>append<\/strong> mode will work.<\/p>\n<p>For append mode, use the<strong> \u2018a\u2019<\/strong> value for the mode argument. The example below demonstrates how:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\"># A demo of appending text\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRTxtFile = open(\"write-append-demo.txt\", \"r\")\r\n\r\ntxtCont = RTxtFile.read();\r\n\r\nprint (\"Before Append - existing content : \", txtCont)\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nRTxtFile.close()\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n#File in append mode\r\n\r\nAppendTxtFile = open(\"write-append-demo.txt\", \"a\")\r\n\r\nAppendTxtFile.write (\"New text in append mode \\n added to text file!\")\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAppendTxtFile.close()\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n#Reopeing file in read mode after append\r\n\r\nReasPostAppend = open(\"write-append-demo.txt\", \"r\")\r\n\r\nContPostAppend = ReasPostAppend.read();\r\n\r\nprint (\"After Append() : \", ContPostAppend)\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReasPostAppend.close()<\/pre>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6556\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/77.2-Python-append-write.png\" alt=\"Python append write\" width=\"513\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/77.2-Python-append-write.png 513w, https:\/\/www.jquery-az.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/77.2-Python-append-write-300x175.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 513px) 100vw, 513px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can see, the existing content remains in the text file while new content is added at the end of that specified file.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The example of \u2018w+\u2019 value with the \u2018With\u2019 statement<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The \u2018with\u2019 keyword is a control flow structure that simplifies the error handling in Python. You may learn about the <a href=\"\/python-keyword-statement-explained-example\/\">with keyword in its tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In this example, I used the \u2018w+\u2019 value for the mode argument; that allows reading and writing operations. The open function is used in the \u2018with\u2019 keyword that itself handles the file closing etc.<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\"># A demo of w+ with 'With' keyword\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nwith open('with-write-demo.txt', 'w+') as fileObject:\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 txtFileCont = fileObject.read()\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 print(\"Before writing: \", txtFileCont)\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 fileObject.write('The new content added in the text file!')\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 fileObject.seek(0)\u00a0 #Move pointer at the beginning of text file\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 txtFileCont = fileObject.read()\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 print(\"After Writing: \", txtFileCont)<\/pre>\n<p><strong>The output of above example:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Before writing:<\/p>\n<p>After Writing:\u00a0 The new content added in the text file!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Note that, as \u2018w+\u2019 is for read and write to the file, the existing content of the file is truncated. If file does not exist, a new file is created and as the final call is made for reading the content, it displayed only what we wrote by write() function.<\/p>\n<p>The seek(0) is used to move pointer at the beginning of the file, otherwise, an empty string is returned.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Using print function for writing in a file<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Rather than displaying a line on the screen, you may also write to the file by specifying a file in the print function.<\/p>\n<p>The following example shows writing a line to a text file using the <a href=\"\/python-3-print-function-7-examples-with-strings-int-list-range-etc\/\">print function<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\"># Writing by print function\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nwith open('print-write.txt', 'w') as objFile:\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 print('Writing a line by print function!', file=objFile)<\/pre>\n<p>Similarly, you may append the text by using the \u2018a\u2019 value for keeping existing content in the text file.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Writing a list to the text file by writelines() method<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The writelines() method is used to write a sequence of strings to the file. So, you may use a list in the\u00a0writelines() for writing its items in the text file.<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"python\"># Writing by writelines function\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nfileObject = open(\"list-write-demo.txt\", \"w+\")\r\n\r\nlstStrings = [\"Python \", \"Hello \", \"World!\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nline = fileObject.writelines( lstStrings )\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nfileObject.seek(0)\u00a0 #Move pointer at the beginning of text file\r\n\r\ntxtFileCont = fileObject.read()\r\n\r\nprint(\"After Writing: \", txtFileCont)\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n# Close the file\r\n\r\nfileObject.close()<\/pre>\n<p><strong>The output:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>After Writing:\u00a0 Python Hello World!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this tutorial, I am specifically explaining how to write content to a text file using Python. 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