Reading Text Files

Reading a text file means asking Python to open a file and give your program its contents as text.

The smallest version is:

The "r" means read mode. The variable text receives one string containing the file contents.

For text files you control, specify a text encoding so the same bytes are read the same way across systems:

UTF-8 is the default choice for course data. Later text chapters explain why encoding is a real data decision rather than file-opening decoration.

A file is a source of text

Create a small file, then read it:

repr(text) shows hidden characters such as \n. The second print uses split to turn whitespace-separated text into a list of strings.

Lines are still strings

You can also read line by line:

Each line is a string. It usually includes the newline at the end. Use .strip() when you want the content without surrounding whitespace:

clean = line.strip()

Convert near the boundary

Files store text. If the file contains numbers, Python still reads text first.

This conversion is a boundary step: data enters as text, then the program turns it into the type it needs.