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Pythonintermediate9 min read

File Handling

Reading and Writing Files

Learning Goals

1
Understand the purpose and application of File Handling in Python projects.
2
Implement clean, functional code demonstrating File Handling syntax.
3
Identify and avoid common coding mistakes associated with file handling.
4
Apply File Handling features to solve a realistic intermediate-level development task.

The Core Concept

File handling allows your Python script to read data from local files and write results back to files. Python provides built-in functions to open, read, write, and append to files.

Visual guide

Python automation process

A simple original diagram to connect the lesson idea with real project flow.

Code & Implementation

python
with open("example.txt", "w") as file:
    file.write("Hello File!")

with open("example.txt", "r") as file:
    content = file.read()
    print(content)

Expected Output

Hello File!

File Organizer

Hands-on practice task

Required for Mastery

The Challenge

Write a script that scans a specific directory and organizes files into sub-folders based on their file extensions (e.g., .txt into a 'Text' folder, .jpg into an 'Images' folder).

Helpful Hints

  • Use the 'os' and 'shutil' modules.
  • Use os.listdir() to get all files in a folder.
  • Extract the file extension and use os.makedirs() to create the target folder if it doesn't exist.
  • Use shutil.move() to relocate the files.

Quick Knowledge Check

What is FileNotFoundError?
It occurs when you try to read a file in 'r' mode that doesn't exist in the specified path.

Continue Learning

Next steps after this lesson

Practice task

Write a script that scans a specific directory and organizes files into sub-folders based on their file extensions (e.g., .txt into a 'Text' folder, .jpg into an 'Images' folder).

Ready to take action?

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