Basic file operation questions

[Steve Holden]

alex wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am a beginner with python and here is my first question:
> How can I read the contents of a file using a loop or something? I open
> the file with file=open(filename, 'r') and what to do then? Can I use
> something like
> 
> for xxx in file:
>    ....
> 
Yes, indeed you can. That's by no means *all* you can do, but to iterate 
over the lines of the file that will wrok exactly. Note that the lines 
will still have their terminating "\n" on the end, which is why the 
print statement inthe following example ends in a comma (this stops 
print from putting out its own newline).

  >>> f = file("test92.py", 'r')
  >>> for l in f:
  ...   print l,
  ...
import os.path

def getHomeDir():
     ''' Try to find user's home directory, otherwise return current 
directory.''
'
     try:
         path1=os.path.expanduser("~")
     except:
         path1=""
     try:
         path2=os.environ["HOME"]
     except:
         path2=""
     try:
         path3=os.environ["USERPROFILE"]
     except:
         path3=""

     if not os.path.exists(path1):
         if not os.path.exists(path2):
             if not os.path.exists(path3):
                 return os.getcwd()
             else: return path3
         else: return path2
     else: return path1

print getHomeDir()
  >>>

regards
  Steve
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