This chapter introduces essential techniques for managing files using Python. You will learn how to read, write, modify, and delete files efficiently, as well as work with common data formats like CSV, JSON, and XML.
- Opening files with various modes (r, rb, etc.).
- Reading files line-by-line or entire contents.
- Using file iterators for memory-efficient reading.
- Handling encoding and decoding of text files.
- Detecting and managing end-of-file and empty files.
- Writing text and binary data to files.
- Appending data versus overwriting.
- Buffering and flushing output streams.
- Creating temporary files safely.
- Managing file permissions and error handling during writes.
- Removing files and directories using os.remove() and os.rmdir().
- Using shutil.rmtree() to delete directories recursively.
- Handling errors if files or directories do not exist.
- Safe deletion practices and confirmation prompts.
- Cleaning up temporary files and directories.
- Understanding file pointers and their role in file I/O.
- Using seek() to move the pointer to desired positions.
- Using tell() to find the current position.
- Working with relative and absolute file positions.
- Practical examples of random access in files.
- Reading and writing CSV files using the csv module.
- Handling different delimiters and quoting.
- Using DictReader and DictWriter for dictionary-based access.
- Working with large CSV files efficiently.
- Use cases for CSV in data exchange and simple databases.
- Loading and dumping JSON data with the json module.
- Managing nested and complex JSON structures.
- Pretty-printing and compacting JSON data.
- Custom serialization with JSONEncoder and JSONDecoder.
- Using JSON for configuration and API communication.
- Parsing XML documents with xml.etree.ElementTree.
- Creating and modifying XML elements and attributes.
- Navigating XML trees and extracting data.
- Understanding namespaces and XML validation.
- Use cases for XML in data interchange and configuration.
- Using context managers (with statements) to ensure files close automatically.
- Handling exceptions during file operations to avoid data loss.
- Managing file locks and concurrency issues.
- Choosing the right file mode and encoding for your application.
- Performance considerations when working with large files.