Beginner Python: Reading and writing to the same file

Every open file has an implicit pointer which indicates where data will be read and written. Normally this defaults to the start of the file, but if you use a mode of a (append) then it defaults to the end of the file. It's also worth noting that the w mode will truncate your file (i.e. delete all the contents) even if you add + to the mode.

Whenever you read or write N characters, the read/write pointer will move forward that amount within the file. I find it helps to think of this like an old cassette tape, if you remember those. So, if you executed the following code:

fd = open("testfile.txt", "w+")
fd.write("This is a test file.\n")
fd.close()

fd = open("testfile.txt", "r+")
print fd.read(4)
fd.write(" IS")
fd.close()

... It should end up printing This and then leaving the file content as This IS a test file.. This is because the initial read(4) returns the first 4 characters of the file, because the pointer is at the start of the file. It leaves the pointer at the space character just after This, so the following write(" IS") overwrites the next three characters with a space (the same as is already there) followed by IS, replacing the existing is.

You can use the seek() method of the file to jump to a specific point. After the example above, if you executed the following:

fd = open("testfile.txt", "r+")
fd.seek(10)
fd.write("TEST")
fd.close()

... Then you'll find that the file now contains This IS a TEST file..

All this applies on Unix systems, and you can test those examples to make sure. However, I've had problems mixing read() and write() on Windows systems. For example, when I execute that first example on my Windows machine then it correctly prints This, but when I check the file afterwards the write() has been completely ignored. However, the second example (using seek()) seems to work fine on Windows.

In summary, if you want to read/write from the middle of a file in Windows I'd suggest always using an explicit seek() instead of relying on the position of the read/write pointer. If you're doing only reads or only writes then it's pretty safe.

One final point - if you're specifying paths on Windows as literal strings, remember to escape your backslashes:

fd = open("C:\\Users\\johndoe\\Desktop\\testfile.txt", "r+")

Or you can use raw strings by putting an r at the start:

fd = open(r"C:\Users\johndoe\Desktop\testfile.txt", "r+")

Or the most portable option is to use os.path.join():

fd = open(os.path.join("C:\\", "Users", "johndoe", "Desktop", "testfile.txt"), "r+")

You can find more information about file IO in the official Python docs.

Updated Response:

This seems like a bug specific to Windows - http://bugs.python.org/issue1521491.

Quoting from the workaround explained at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-bugs-list/2005-August/029886.html

the effect of mixing reads with writes on a file open for update is entirely undefined unless a file-positioning operation occurs between them (for example, a seek()). I can't guess what you expect to happen, but seems most likely that what you intend could be obtained reliably by inserting

fp.seek(fp.tell())

between read() and your write().

My original response demonstrates how reading/writing on the same file opened for appending works. It is apparently not true if you are using Windows.

Original Response:

In 'r+' mode, using write method will write the string object to the file based on where the pointer is. In your case, it will append the string "Test abc" to the start of the file. See an example below:

>>> f=open("a","r+")
>>> f.read()
'Test abc\nfasdfafasdfa\nsdfgsd\n'
>>> f.write("foooooooooooooo")
>>> f.close()
>>> f=open("a","r+")
>>> f.read()
'Test abc\nfasdfafasdfa\nsdfgsd\nfoooooooooooooo'

The string "foooooooooooooo" got appended at the end of the file since the pointer was already at the end of the file.

Are you on a system that differentiates between binary and text files? You might want to use 'rb+' as a mode in that case.

Append 'b' to the mode to open the file in binary mode, on systems that differentiate between binary and text files; on systems that don’t have this distinction, adding the 'b' has no effect. http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#open

Reading and Writing happens where the current file pointer is and it advances with each read/write. In your particular case, writing to the openFile, causes the file-pointer to point to the end of file. Trying to read from the end would result EOF. You need to reset the file pointer, to point to the beginning of the file before through seek(0) before reading from it