[Tutor] do I need f.close()

[Marilyn Davis]

On Thu, June 12, 2008 4:32 pm, Alan Gauld wrote:

> "dave selby" <dave6502 at googlemail.com> wrote
>
>
>> The whole topic came up because I just finished reading 'learning
>> python' 3rd edition OReilly as a refresher where there are multiple
>> instances of suggesting that you do the exact opposite eg ...
>
> LP is a tutorial book so does not always teach industry strength
> programming practice (in common with most tutorials!)
>
>> [line.rstrip() for line in open('myfile')] ... p361
>> for line in open('script1.py') ... p261& p276 where it is described as
>> 'best practice' for reading files line by line
>>
>
> Its the common idiom and for reading files not too bad.
> I certainly use this sometimes but if its critical I will move
> the open outside the loop:
>
> f = open(...) for line in f:....
>
> or
>
> [line.rstrip() for line in f]
>
>
> But thats just so that I can detect and correct missing
> files if necessary etc. Its not becauise of closure issues. I'm fairly
> happy about letting the os close read only files, its really for writing
> that you want to be explicit.

Alan, will the file close, even if it was opened for writing, when the
program ends?  I know it stays open if you're interactive, but otherwise
too?

Marilyn Davis

>
> Alan G.
>
>
>
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