6.4 File Writing Methods
Learning the write() and writelines() methods for writing data to files, with an emphasis on manually adding the newline character.
For writing data to a file opened in write (`"w"`) or append (`"a"`) mode, the main methods are `write()` and `writelines()`.
- `write(string)`: Writes a single string to the file. It is important to remember that `write()` does not automatically add a newline character (`\n`). You must add it manually if you want your data to be on separate lines.
- `writelines(list_of_strings)`: Accepts a list of strings and writes them to the file, one after the other. Similarly, it does not automatically add newlines. Each item in the list must contain the `\n` character if you want a line break.
Tip!
Remember that the `"w"` (write) mode will delete the content of an existing file before writing new data. If you want to add data to the end of a file, use the `"a"` (append) mode.
# 1. Using write()
with open("write_methods_example.txt", "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
f.write("First line.\n")
f.write("Second line.\n")
# 2. Using writelines()
lines_to_write = ["Third line.\n", "Fourth line.\n"]
with open("write_methods_example.txt", "a", encoding="utf-8") as f:
f.writelines(lines_to_write)
# Confirmation
with open("write_methods_example.txt", "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
print("Content of 'write_methods_example.txt':")
print(f.read())
Explore More with AI
Use AI to generate new examples, delve deeper into theory, or get your questions answered.