Read from, then write to a file without closing first???

[Amy G]

I am looking to make this code a little "nicer"... any suggestions???
I want to do a "read+" where I would be able to first read the contents of
the file... then either close the file out or write to the file without
appending. I want to overwrite the content.

vacation_messag e = "blah blah blah"

f_vm=open("/home/%s/.vacation.msg" %userid, 'r')
lines=f_vm.read lines()
f_vm.close()

if (lines != vacation_messag e):
f_vm=open("/home/%s/.vacation.msg" %userid, 'w')
f_vm.writelines (vacation_messa ge)
f_vm.close()

Thanks

[Peter Otten]

Re: Read from, then write to a file without closing first???

Amy G wrote:
[color=blue]
> I am looking to make this code a little "nicer"... any suggestions???
> I want to do a "read+" where I would be able to first read the contents of
> the file... then either close the file out or write to the file without
> appending. I want to overwrite the content.
>
> vacation_messag e = "blah blah blah"
>
> f_vm=open("/home/%s/.vacation.msg" %userid, 'r')
> lines=f_vm.read lines()
> f_vm.close()
>
> if (lines != vacation_messag e):
> f_vm=open("/home/%s/.vacation.msg" %userid, 'w')
> f_vm.writelines (vacation_messa ge)
> f_vm.close()[/color]

You can open the file in "r+" mode and then f_vm.seek(0) before writing.
However, from the above example I can not see why you even bother to check
the old contents and don't just write the new data.

Peter

[Miki Tebeka]

Re: Read from, then write to a file without closing first???

Hello Amy,
[color=blue]
> I am looking to make this code a little "nicer"... any suggestions???
> I want to do a "read+" where I would be able to first read the contents of
> the file... then either close the file out or write to the file without
> appending. I want to overwrite the content.[/color]
def check(file, msg):
if open(file).read () != msg:
open(file, "w").write( msg)

HTH.
Miki