1.6. io — Core tools for working with streams

The io module provides Python’s main facilities for dealing with various types of I/O. There are two main types of I/O: text I/O and binary I/O. These are generic categories, and various backing stores can be used for each of them.

---

io.open(name, mode='r')

Open a file named name. mode is a combination of the characters 'rwbta'.

class io.FileIO(...)

This is type of a file open in binary mode, e.g. using open(name, "rb"). You should not instantiate this class directly.

class io.TextIOWrapper(...)

This is type of a file open in text mode, e.g. using open(name, "rt"). You should not instantiate this class directly.

class uio.StringIO([string])

class uio.BytesIO([string])

In-memory file-like objects for input/output. StringIO is used for text-mode I/O (similar to a normal file opened with "t" modifier). BytesIO is used for binary-mode I/O (similar to a normal file opened with "b" modifier). Initial contents of file-like objects can be specified with string parameter (should be normal string for StringIO or bytes object for BytesIO).

read(size=-1)

Read up to size bytes fro mthe file. If size is negative or None, read until end of file.

readall()

Read until end of file.

readline()

Read a line.

write(b)

Write b to the file.

seek(offset[, whence])

Move the file cursor offset bytes relative to beginning of the file (0), current position (1) or end of the file (2). The default value of whence is 0.

flush()

Flush all buffers.

close()

Close the file.

getvalue()

Get the current contents of the underlying buffer which holds data.