Python Programming:

An Introduction to
Computer Science

Chapter 5
Sequences: Strings, Lists, and Files

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Objectives
◼ To understand the string data type and
how strings are represented in the
computer.
◼ To become familiar with various
operations that can be performed on
strings through built-in functions and
string methods.

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Objectives
◼ To understand the basic idea of sequences
and indexing as they apply to Python strings
and lists.
◼ To be able to apply string formatting to
produce attractive, informative program
output.
◼ To understand basic file processing concepts
and techniques for reading and writing text
files in Python.

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Objectives
◼ To understand basic concepts of
cryptography.
◼ To be able to understand and write
programs that process textual
information.

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The String Data Type
◼ The most common use of personal
computers is word processing.
◼ Text is represented in programs by the
string data type.
◼ A string is a sequence of characters
enclosed within quotation marks (") or
apostrophes (').

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The String Data Type
>>> str1="Hello"
>>> str2='spam'
>>> print(str1, str2)
Hello spam
>>> type(str1)
<class 'str'>
>>> type(str2)
<class 'str'>

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The String Data Type
◼ Getting a string as input
>>> firstName = input("Please enter your name: ")
Please enter your name: John
>>> print("Hello", firstName)
Hello John

◼ Notice that the input is not evaluated. We

want to store the typed characters, not to
evaluate them as a Python expression.

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The String Data Type
◼ We can access the individual characters
in a string through indexing.
◼ The positions in a string are numbered
from the left, starting with 0.
◼ The general form is <string>[<expr>],
where the value of expr determines
which character is selected from the
string.

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The String Data Type

H e l l o B o b
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
>>> greet = "Hello Bob"
>>> greet[0]
'H'
>>> print(greet[0], greet[2], greet[4])
H l o
>>> x = 8
>>> print(greet[x - 2])
B

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The String Data Type
H e l l o B o b
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
◼ In a string of n characters, the last character
is at position n-1 since we start counting with
0.
◼ We can index from the right side using
negative indexes.
>>> greet[-1]
'b'
>>> greet[-3]
'B'
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The String Data Type
◼ Indexing returns a string containing a
single character from a larger string.
◼ We can also access a contiguous
sequence of characters, called a
substring, through a process called
slicing.

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The String Data Type
Slicing:
◼ <string>[<start>:<end>]
◼ start and end should both be ints
◼ The slice contains the substring
beginning at position start and runs up
to but doesn’t include the position
end.

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The String Data Type
H e l l o B o b
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
>>> greet[0:3]
'Hel'
>>> greet[5:9]
' Bob'
>>> greet[:5]
'Hello'
>>> greet[5:]
' Bob'
>>> greet[:]
'Hello Bob'

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The String Data Type
◼ If either expression is missing, then the
start or the end of the string are used.
◼ Can we put two strings together into a
longer string?
◼ Concatenation “glues” two strings
together (+)
◼ Repetition builds up a string by multiple
concatenations of a string with itself (*)

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The String Data Type
◼ The function len will return the length of a
string.
>>> "spam" + "eggs"
'spameggs'
>>> "Spam" + "And" + "Eggs"
'SpamAndEggs'
>>> 3 * "spam"
'spamspamspam'
>>> "spam" * 5
'spamspamspamspamspam'
>>> (3 * "spam") + ("eggs" * 5)
'spamspamspameggseggseggseggseggs'

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The String Data Type
>>> len("spam")
4
>>> for ch in "Spam!":
print (ch, end=" ")

S p a m !

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The String Data Type
Operator Meaning
+ Concatenation
* Repetition
<string>[] Indexing
<string>[:] Slicing
len(<string>) Length
for <var> in <string> Iteration through characters

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 Simple String Processing
◼ Usernames on a computer system
◼ First initial, first seven characters of last name
# get user’s first and last names
first = input("Please enter your first name (all lowercase): ")
last = input("Please enter your last name (all lowercase): ")

# concatenate first initial with 7 chars of last name

uname = first[0] + last[:7]

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 Simple String Processing
>>>
Please enter your first name (all lowercase): john
Please enter your last name (all lowercase): doe
uname = jdoe

>>>
Please enter your first name (all lowercase): donna
Please enter your last name (all lowercase): rostenkowski
uname = drostenk

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Simple String Processing
◼ Another use – converting an int that
stands for the month into the three
letter abbreviation for that month.
◼ Store all the names in one big string:
◼ “JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec”
◼ Use the month number as an index for
slicing this string:
◼ monthAbbrev = months[pos:pos+3]

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Simple String Processing
Month Number Position
Jan 1 0
Feb 2 3
Mar 3 6
Apr 4 9
▪ To get the correct position, subtract one
from the month number and multiply by
three
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 Simple String Processing
# month.py
# A program to print the abbreviation of a month, given its number

def main():

# months is used as a lookup table

months = "JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec"

n = int(input("Enter a month number (1-12): "))

# compute starting position of month n in months

pos = (n-1) * 3
# Grab the appropriate slice from months
monthAbbrev = months[pos:pos+3]

# print the result

print ("The month abbreviation is", monthAbbrev + ".")

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Simple String Processing
>>> main()
Enter a month number (1-12): 1
The month abbreviation is Jan.
>>> main()
Enter a month number (1-12): 12
The month abbreviation is Dec.

◼ One weakness – this method only works

where the potential outputs all have the same
length.
◼ How could you handle spelling out the
months?

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Lists as Sequences
◼ It turns out that strings are really a special
kind of sequence, so these operations also
apply to sequences!
>>> [1,2] + [3,4]
[1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> [1,2]*3
[1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2]
>>> grades = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'F']
>>> grades[0]
'A'
>>> grades[2:4]
['C', 'D']
>>> len(grades)
5

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Lists as Sequences
◼ Strings are always sequences of
characters, but lists can be sequences
of arbitrary values.
◼ Lists can have numbers, strings, or
both!
◼
◼ myList = [1, "Spam ", 4, "U"]

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Lists as Sequences
◼ We can use the idea of a list to make
our previous month program even
simpler!
◼ We change the lookup table for months
to a list:
◼
◼ months = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May",
"Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov",
"Dec"]

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Lists as Sequences
To get the months out of the sequence,
do this:
monthAbbrev = months[n-1]

Rather than this:

monthAbbrev = months[pos:pos+3]
◼

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Lists as Sequences
# month2.py
# A program to print the month name, given it's number.
# This version uses a list as a lookup table.

def main():

# months is a list used as a lookup table

months = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun",
"Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"]

n = int(input("Enter a month number (1-12): "))

print ("The month abbreviation is", months[n-1] + ".")

◼ Note that the months line overlaps a line.
Python knows that the expression isn’t
complete until the closing ‘]’ is encountered.

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Lists as Sequences
# month2.py
# A program to print the month name, given it's number.
# This version uses a list as a lookup table.

def main():
# months is a list used as a lookup table
months = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun",
"Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"]
n = int(input("Enter a month number (1-12): "))

print ("The month abbreviation is", months[n-1] + ".")

◼ Since the list is indexed starting from 0, the

n-1 calculation is straight-forward enough to
put in the print statement without needing a
separate step.

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Lists as Sequences
This version of the program is easy to
extend to print out the whole month
name rather than an abbreviation!
months = ["January", "February", "March",
"April", "May", "June", "July",
"August", "September", "October",
◼ "November", "December"]

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Lists as Sequences
◼ Lists are mutable, meaning they can be
changed. Strings can not be changed.
>>> myList = [34, 26, 15, 10]
>>> myList[2]
15
>>> myList[2] = 0
>>> myList
[34, 26, 0, 10]
>>> myString = "Hello World"
>>> myString[2]
'l'
>>> myString[2] = "p"

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<pyshell#16>", line 1, in -toplevel-
myString[2] = "p"
TypeError: object doesn't support item assignment

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String Representation
◼ Inside the computer, strings are
represented as sequences of 1’s and
0’s, just like numbers.
◼ A string is stored as a sequence of
binary numbers, one number per
character.
◼ It doesn’t matter what value is assigned
as long as it’s done consistently.

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String Representation
◼ In the early days of computers, each
manufacturer used their own encoding
of numbers for characters.
◼ ASCII system (American Standard Code
for Information Interchange) uses 127
bit codes
◼ Python supports Unicode (100,000+
characters)

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String Representation
◼ The ord function returns the numeric
(ordinal) code of a single character.
◼ The chr function converts a numeric code to
the corresponding character.
>>> ord("A")
65
>>> ord("a")
97
>>> chr(97)
'a'
>>> chr(65)
'A'

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 Programming an Encoder
◼ Using ord and char we can convert a string
into and out of numeric form.
◼ The encoding algorithm is simple:
◼ get the message to encode
◼ for each character in the message:
◼ print the letter number of the character
◼ A for loop iterates over a sequence of
objects, so the for loop looks like:
◼ for ch in <string>

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 Programming an Encoder
# text2numbers.py
# A program to convert a textual message into a sequence of
# numbers, utlilizing the underlying Unicode encoding.

def main():
print("This program converts a textual message into a sequence")
print ("of numbers representing the Unicode encoding of the message.\n")

# Get the message to encode

message = input("Please enter the message to encode: ")

print("\nHere are the Unicode codes:")

# Loop through the message and print out the Unicode values
for ch in message:
print(ord(ch), end=" ")

print() # blank line before prompt

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Programming a Decoder
◼ We now have a program to convert
messages into a type of “code”, but it
would be nice to have a program that
could decode the message!
◼ The outline for a decoder:
◼ get the sequence of numbers to decode
◼ message = “”
◼ for each number in the input:
◼ convert the number to the appropriate
character
◼ add the character to the end of the message
◼ print the message

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Programming a Decoder
◼ The variable message is an accumulator
variable, initially set to the empty string,
the string with no characters ("").
◼ Each time through the loop, a number
from the input is converted to the
appropriate character and appended to
the end of the accumulator.

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Programming a Decoder
◼ How do we get the sequence of
numbers to decode?
◼ Read the input as a single string, then
split it apart into substrings, each of
which represents one number.

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 Programming a Decoder
The new algorithm
get the sequence of numbers as a string, inString
split inString into a sequence of smaller strings
message = ""
for each of the smaller strings:
change the string of digits into the number it represents
append the ASCII character for that number to message
◼ print message

◼ Strings are objects and have useful methods

associated with them

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Programming a Decoder
◼ One of these methods is split. This will
split a string into substrings based on
spaces.
>>> "Hello string methods!".split()
['Hello', 'string', 'methods!']

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Programming a Decoder
◼ Split can be used on characters other
than space, by supplying the character
as a parameter.
>>> "32,24,25,57".split(",")
['32', '24', '25', '57']

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 Programming a Decoder
◼ We could get the x and y values of a point in a
single input string by…
◼ Turning it into a list using the split method
◼ Indexing the individual component strings
◼ Convert these strings into their corresponding
numbers using int or float
coords = input("Enter the point coordinates (x,y): ").split(",")
x,y = float(coords[0]), float(coords[1])

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Programming a Decoder
# numbers2text.py
# A program to convert a sequence of Unicode numbers into
# a string of text.

def main():
print ("This program converts a sequence of Unicode numbers into")
print ("the string of text that it represents.\n")

# Get the message to encode

inString = input("Please enter the Unicode-encoded message: ")

# Loop through each substring and build Unicde message

message = ""
for numStr in inString.split():
# convert the (sub)string to a number
codeNum = int(numStr)
# append character to message
message = message + chr(codeNum)

print("\nThe decoded message is:", message)

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Programming a Decoder
◼ The split function produces a
sequence of strings. numString gets
each successive substring.
◼ Each time through the loop, the next
substring is converted to the
appropriate Unicode character and
appended to the end of message.

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 Programming a Decoder
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This program converts a textual message into a sequence
of numbers representing the Unicode encoding of the message.

Please enter the message to encode: CS120 is fun!

Here are the Unicode codes:

67 83 49 50 48 32 105 115 32 102 117 110 33

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This program converts a sequence of Unicode numbers into
the string of text that it represents.

Please enter the ASCII-encoded message: 67 83 49 50 48 32 105 115 32 102 117 110 33
The decoded message is: CS120 is fun!

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More String Methods
◼ There are a number of other string
methods. Try them all!
◼ s.capitalize() – Copy of s with only the
first character capitalized
◼ s.title() – Copy of s; first character of
each word capitalized
◼ s.center(width) – Center s in a field of
given width

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More String Methods
◼ s.count(sub) – Count the number of
occurrences of sub in s
◼ s.find(sub) – Find the first position
where sub occurs in s
◼ s.join(list) – Concatenate list of
strings into one large string using s as
separator.
◼ s.ljust(width) – Like center, but s is
left-justified

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More String Methods
◼ s.lower() – Copy of s in all lowercase
letters
◼ s.lstrip() – Copy of s with leading
whitespace removed
◼ s.replace(oldsub, newsub) – Replace
occurrences of oldsub in s with newsub
◼ s.rfind(sub) – Like find, but returns the
right-most position
◼ s.rjust(width) – Like center, but s is
right-justified

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More String Methods
◼ s.rstrip() – Copy of s with trailing
whitespace removed
◼ s.split() – Split s into a list of
substrings
◼ s.upper() – Copy of s; all characters
converted to uppercase

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 Lists Have Methods, Too
◼ The append method can be used to add
an item at the end of a list.
◼ squares = []
◼ for x in range(1,101):
squares.append(x*x)
◼ We start with an empty list ([]) and each
number from 1 to 100 is squared and
appended to it ([1, 4, 9, …, 10000]).

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Lists Have Methods, Too
◼ We can use an alternative approach in
the decoder program.
◼ The statement
◼ message = message + chr(codeNum)
◼ essentially creates a copy of the message
so far and tacks one character on the end.
◼ As we build up the message, we keep
recopying a longer and longer string just to
add a single character at the end!

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Lists Have Methods, Too
◼ We can avoid this recopying by using
lists of characters where each new
character is appended to the end of
the existing list.
◼ Since lists are mutable, the list is
changed “in place” without having to
copy the content over to a new object.

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Lists Have Methods, Too
◼ When done, we can use join to
concatenate the characters into a
string.

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 Lists Have Methods, Too
# numbers2text2.py
# A program to convert a sequence of Unicode numbers into
# a string of text. Efficient version using a list accumulator.

def main():
print("This program converts a sequence of Unicode numbers into")
print("the string of text that it represents.\n")

# Get the message to encode

inString = input("Please enter the Unicode-encoded message: ")

# Loop through each substring and build Unicode message

chars = []
for numStr in inString.split():
codeNum = int(numStr) # convert digits to a number
chars.append(chr(codeNum)) # accumulate new character

message = "".join(chars)
print("\nThe decoded message is:", message)

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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ The process of encoding information for the
purpose of keeping it secret or transmitting it
privately is called encryption.
◼ Cryptography is the study of encryption
methods.
◼ Encryption is used when transmitting credit
card and other personal information to a web
site.

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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ Strings are represented as a sort of
encoding problem, where each
character in the string is represented as
a number that’s stored in the computer.
◼ The code that is the mapping between
character and number is an industry
standard, so it’s not “secret”.

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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ The encoding/decoding programs we
wrote use a substitution cipher, where
each character of the original message,
known as the plaintext, is replaced by a
corresponding symbol in the cipher
alphabet.
◼ The resulting code is known as the
ciphertext.
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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ This type of code is relatively easy to
break.
◼ Each letter is always encoded with the
same symbol, so using statistical
analysis on the frequency of the letters
and trial and error, the original message
can be determined.

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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ Modern encryption converts messages
into numbers.
◼ Sophisticated mathematical formulas
convert these numbers into new
numbers – usually this transformation
consists of combining the message with
another value called the “key”

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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ To decrypt the message, the receiving end
needs an appropriate key so the encoding
can be reversed.
◼ In a private key system the same key is used
for encrypting and decrypting messages.
Everyone you know would need a copy of this
key to communicate with you, but it needs to
be kept a secret.

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From Encoding to Encryption
◼ In public key encryption, there are separate
keys for encrypting and decrypting the
message.
◼ In public key systems, the encryption key is
made publicly available, while the decryption
key is kept private.
◼ Anyone with the public key can send a
message, but only the person who holds the
private key (decryption key) can decrypt it.

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
◼ Often we will need to do some string
operations to prepare our string data
for output (“pretty it up”)
◼ Let’s say we want to enter a date in the
format “05/24/2015” and output
◼ “May 24, 2015.” How could we do that?

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 Input/Output as String
Manipulation
Input the date in mm/dd/yyyy format (dateStr)
Split dateStr into month, day, and year strings
Convert the month string into a month number
Use the month number to lookup the month name
Create a new date string in the form “Month Day, Year”
Output the new date string

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
The first two lines are easily
implemented!
dateStr = input("Enter a date (mm/dd/yyyy): ")
◼ monthStr, dayStr, yearStr = dateStr.split("/")
◼ The date is input as a string, and then
“unpacked” into the three variables by
splitting it at the slashes and using
simultaneous assignment.

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
◼ Next step: Convert monthStr into a
number
◼ We can use the int function on
monthStr to convert "05", for example,
into the integer 5. (int("05") = 5)

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
Note: eval would work, but for the leading 0
>>> int("05")
5
>>> eval("05")
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#9>", line 1, in <module>
eval("05")
File "<string>", line 1
◼ 05
◼ ^
◼ SyntaxError: invalid token

◼ This is historical baggage. A leading 0 used to

be used for base 8 (octal) literals in Python.

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
months = ["January", "February", …, "December"]
monthStr = months[int(monthStr) – 1]
◼ Remember that since we start counting
at 0, we need to subtract one from the
month.
◼ Now let’s concatenate the output string
together!

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 Input/Output as String
Manipulation
print ("The converted date is:", monthStr, dayStr+",", yearStr)

◼ Notice how the comma is appended to dayStr

with concatenation!
◼ >>> main()
◼ Enter a date (mm/dd/yyyy): 01/23/2010
◼ The converted date is: January 23, 2010

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
◼ Sometimes we want to convert a number into
a string.
◼ We can use the str function.
>>> str(500)
'500'
>>> value = 3.14
>>> str(value)
'3.14'
>>> print("The value is", str(value) + ".")
The value is 3.14.

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 Input/Output as String
Manipulation
◼ If value is a string, we can concatenate a
period onto the end of it.
◼ If value is an int, what happens?
>>> value = 3.14
>>> print("The value is", value + ".")
The value is

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<pyshell#10>", line 1, in -toplevel-
print "The value is", value + "."
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'float' and 'str'

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Input/Output as String
Manipulation
We now have a complete set of type
conversion operations:
Function
◼ Meaning
float(<expr>) Convert expr to a floating point value

int(<expr>) Convert expr to an integer value

str(<expr>) Return a string representation of expr
eval(<string>) Evaluate string as an expression

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String Formatting
◼ String formatting is an easy way to get
beautiful output!
Change Counter

Please enter the count of each coin type.

Quarters: 6
Dimes: 0
Nickels: 0
Pennies: 0

The total value of your change is 1.5

◼ Shouldn’t that be more like $1.50??

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 String Formatting
We can format our output by modifying the
print statement as follows:
print("The total value of your change is ${0:0.2f}".format(total))
◼

◼ Now we get something like:

◼ The total value of your change is $1.50
◼ Key is the string format method.

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String Formatting
◼ <template-string>.format(<values>)
◼ {} within the template-string mark
“slots” into which the values are
inserted.
◼ Each slot has description that includes
format specifier telling Python how the
value for the slot should appear.

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 String Formatting
print("The total value of your change is ${0:0.2f}".format(total)

◼ The template contains a single slot with

the description: 0:0.2f
◼ Form of description:
◼ <index>:<format-specifier>
◼ Index tells which parameter to insert into
the slot. In this case, total.

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String Formatting
◼ The formatting specifier has the form:
<width>.<precision><type>
◼ f means "fixed point" number
◼ <width> tells us how many spaces to
use to display the value. 0 means to use
as much space as necessary.
◼ <precision> is the number of decimal
places.

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 String Formatting
>>> "Hello {0} {1}, you may have won ${2}" .format("Mr.", "Smith", 10000)
'Hello Mr. Smith, you may have won $10000'

>>> 'This int, {0:5}, was placed in a field of width 5'.format(7)

'This int, 7, was placed in a field of width 5'

>>> 'This int, {0:10}, was placed in a field of witdh 10'.format(10)

'This int, 10, was placed in a field of witdh 10'

>>> 'This float, {0:10.5}, has width 10 and precision 5.'.format(3.1415926)

'This float, 3.1416, has width 10 and precision 5.'

>>> 'This float, {0:10.5f}, is fixed at 5 decimal places.'.format(3.1415926)

'This float, 3.14159, has width 0 and precision 5.'

>>> "Compare {0} and {0:0.20}".format(3.14)

'Compare 3.14 and 3.1400000000000001243'

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String Formatting
◼ Numeric values are right-justified and strings
are left- justified, by default.
◼ You can also specify a justification before the
width.
>>> "left justification: {0:<5}.format("Hi!")
'left justification: Hi! '
>>> "right justification: {0:>5}.format("Hi!")
'right justification: Hi!'
>>> "centered: {0:^5}".format("Hi!")
'centered: Hi! '

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Better Change Counter
◼ With what we know now about floating
point numbers, we might be uneasy
about using them in a money situation.
◼ One way around this problem is to keep
track of money in cents using an int or
long int, and convert it into dollars and
cents when output.

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Better Change Counter
If total is a value in cents (an int),
dollars = total//100
◼ cents = total%100

◼ Cents is printed using width 0>2 to

right-justify it with leading 0s (if
necessary) into a field of width 2.
◼ Thus 5 cents becomes '05'

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Better Change Counter
# change2.py
# A program to calculate the value of some change in dollars.
# This version represents the total cash in cents.

def main():
print ("Change Counter\n")

print ("Please enter the count of each coin type.")

quarters = int(input("Quarters: "))
dimes = int(input("Dimes: "))
nickels = int(input("Nickels: "))
pennies = int(input("Pennies: "))
total = quarters * 25 + dimes * 10 + nickels * 5 + pennies

print ("The total value of your change is ${0}.{1:0>2}"

.format(total//100, total%100))

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 Better Change Counter
>>> main() >>> main()
Change Counter Change Counter

Please enter the count of each coin type. Please enter the count of each coin type.
Quarters: 0 Quarters: 12
Dimes: 0 Dimes: 1
Nickels: 0 Nickels: 0
Pennies: 1 Pennies: 4

The total value of your change is $0.01 The total value of your change is $3.14

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Files: Multi-line Strings
◼ A file is a sequence of data that is
stored in secondary memory (disk
drive).
◼ Files can contain any data type, but the
easiest to work with are text.
◼ A file usually contains more than one
line of text.
◼ Python uses the standard newline
character (\n) to mark line breaks.
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Multi-Line Strings
Hello
World
◼ Goodbye 32
◼ When stored in a file:
◼ Hello\nWorld\n\nGoodbye 32\n

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Multi-Line Strings
◼ This is exactly the same thing as
embedding \n in print statements.
◼ Remember, these special characters
only affect things when printed. They
don’t do anything during evaluation.

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File Processing
◼ The process of opening a file involves
associating a file on disk with an object
in memory.
◼ We can manipulate the file by
manipulating this object.
◼ Read from the file
◼ Write to the file

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File Processing
◼ When done with the file, it needs to be
closed. Closing the file causes any
outstanding operations and other
bookkeeping for the file to be
completed.
◼ In some cases, not properly closing a
file could result in data loss.

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File Processing
◼ Reading a file into a word processor
◼ File opened
◼ Contents read into RAM
◼ File closed
◼ Changes to the file are made to the copy
stored in memory, not on the disk.

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File Processing
◼ Saving a word processing file
◼ The original file on the disk is reopened in
a mode that will allow writing (this actually
erases the old contents)
◼ File writing operations copy the version of
the document in memory to the disk
◼ The file is closed

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File Processing
◼ Working with text files in Python
◼ Associate a disk file with a file object using
the open function
◼ <filevar> = open(<name>, <mode>)
◼ name is a string with the actual file name
on the disk. The mode is either ‘r’ or ‘w’
depending on whether we are reading or
writing the file.
◼ infile = open("numbers.dat", "r")

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File Methods
◼ <file>.read() – returns the entire remaining
contents of the file as a single (possibly large,
multi-line) string
◼ <file>.readline() – returns the next line of
the file. This is all text up to and including the
next newline character
◼ <file>.readlines() – returns a list of the
remaining lines in the file. Each list item is a
single line including the newline characters.

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File Processing
# printfile.py
# Prints a file to the screen.

def main():
fname = input("Enter filename: ")
infile = open(fname,'r')
data = infile.read()
print(data)
◼ First, prompt the user for a file name
◼ Open the file for reading
◼ The file is read as one string and stored in the
variable data

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File Processing
◼ readline can be used to read the next
line from a file, including the trailing
newline character
◼ infile = open(someFile, "r")
◼ for i in range(5):
◼ line = infile.readline()
print(line[:-1])
◼ This reads the first 5 lines of a file
◼ Slicing is used to strip out the newline
characters at the ends of the lines

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File Processing
◼ Another way to loop through the
contents of a file is to read it in with
readlines and then loop through the
resulting list.
◼ infile = open(someFile, "r")
◼ for line in infile.readlines():
◼ # Line processing here
infile.close()

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File Processing
◼ Python treats the file itself as a
sequence of lines!
◼ infile = open(someFile, "r")
◼ for line in infile:
◼ # process the line here
infile.close()

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 File Processing
◼ Opening a file for writing prepares the
file to receive data
◼ If you open an existing file for writing,
you wipe out the file’s contents. If the
named file does not exist, a new one is
created.
outfile = open("mydata.out", "w")
print(<expressions>, file=outfile)

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Example Program:
Batch Usernames
◼ Batch mode processing is where
program input and output are done
through files (the program is not
designed to be interactive)
◼ Let’s create usernames for a computer
system where the first and last names
come from an input file.

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 Example Program:
Batch Usernames
# userfile.py
# Program to create a file of usernames in batch mode.

def main():
print ("This program creates a file of usernames from a")
print ("file of names.")

# get the file names

infileName = input("What file are the names in? ")
outfileName = input("What file should the usernames go in? ")

# open the files

infile = open(infileName, 'r')
outfile = open(outfileName, 'w')

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Example Program:
Batch Usernames
# process each line of the input file
for line in infile:
# get the first and last names from line
first, last = line.split()
# create a username
uname = (first[0]+last[:7]).lower()
# write it to the output file
print(uname, file=outfile)

# close both files

infile.close()
outfile.close()

print("Usernames have been written to", outfileName)

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Example Program:
Batch Usernames
◼ Things to note:
◼ It’s not unusual for programs to have multiple files
open for reading and writing at the same time.
◼ The lower method is used to convert the names
into all lower case, in the event the names are
mixed upper and lower case.

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File Dialogs
◼ A common problem with file manipulation
programs is figuring out exactly how to
specify the file that you want to use.
◼ With no additional information, Python will
look in the “current” directory for files.
◼ Most modern operating systems use file
names having a form like <name>.<type>
where type is a short indicator of what the
file contains, e.g. txt (text file).

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File Dialogs
◼ One problem: some operating systems
(Windows and MacOS) by default only show
the part of the name preceeding the period,
so it can be hard to figure out the complete
file name.
◼ It’s even harder when the file is located
somewhere other than the current directory
in your secondary memory! Then we will
need the complete path in addition to the file
name.
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File Dialogs
On Windows, the complete file name may look
like
◼ C:/users/susan/Documents/Python_Programs/users.txt
◼ The solution? Allow the users to browse the
file system visually and navigate to the file.
◼ This is a common enough operation that most
operating systems provide a standard way to
do this, usually incorporating a dialog box.

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File Dialogs
◼ To ask the user for the name of a file to open,
you can use askopenfilename from
tkinter.filedialog.
from tkinter.filedialog import
askopenfilename
…
infileName = aksopenfilename()
infile = open(infileName, "r")

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File Dialogs

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File Dialogs
◼ When the user clicks the “Open” button, the
complete path name of the file is returned as
a string and saved into the variable
infileName.
◼ If the user clicks “Cancel”, the function
returns an empty string.

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File Dialogs
◼ To ask the user for the name of a file to
save, you can use asksaveasfilename
from tkinter.filedialog.
from tkinter.filedialog import
asksaveasfilename
…
outfileName = asksaveasfilename()
outfile = open(outfileName, "w")

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File Dialogs

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