Python version of perl's "if (-T ..)" and "if (-B ...)"?

[Chris Rebert]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 6:01 AM, Lloyd Zusman <ljz at asfast.com> wrote:
> Perl has the following constructs to check whether a file is considered
> to contain "text" or "binary" data:
>
> if (-T $filename) { print "file contains 'text' characters\n"; }
> if (-B $filename) { print "file contains 'binary' characters\n"; }
>
> Is there already a Python analog to these? I'm happy to write them on
> my own if no such constructs currently exist, but before I start, I'd
> like to make sure that I'm not "re-inventing the wheel".
>
> By the way, here's what the perl docs say about these constructs. I'm
> looking for something similar in Python:
>
> ... The -T  and -B  switches work as follows. The first block or so
> ... of the file is examined for odd characters such as strange control
> ... codes or characters with the high bit set. If too many strange
> ... characters (>30%) are found, it's a -B file; otherwise it's a -T
> ... file. Also, any file containing null in the first block is
> ... considered a binary file. [ ... ]

Pray tell, what are the circumstances that lead you to use such a
heuristic rather than a more definitive method?

Cheers,
Chris
--
http://blog.rebertia.com