Reading and writing text files

• Files in your OS are basically binary number streams. Programming languages usually make available to you the option to open them as binary numbers or as text.
  • If you open them as text, the binary numbers will follow some codification (for example, UTF-8)

Reading from a text file

f = open('mydata.txt', 'r')

• The open() function returns a file object
  • If the file is not accessible, Python gives an error
• The second argument, specifies a mode in which the file will be read
  • r = (only for) reading
  • w = (only for) writing
  • a = append (everything you write will go to the end of the text file)
  • r+ = read and write mode

Writing to a text file