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Introduction to programming with Python
  • Introduction to programming with Python 3
  • Preface
    • Common misconceptions about learning to program
    • The Hard truth about learning to program
    • Personal qualities for success
  • 1 - The way of the program
    • Python Programming Language
    • The first program
    • What is debugging?
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 2 - Variables, expressions and statements
    • Values, types and variables
    • Common Built-in data types
    • Expressions
    • Code Format
    • Debugging
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 3 - Functions
    • Python "built-in" Functions
    • Math Functions
    • Composition
    • User Defined Functions
    • PEP 8 Recommendations
    • Debugging
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 4 - Conditionals
    • Boolean expressions
    • Conditional statements
    • PEP 8 Recommendations
  • 5 - Iteration
    • The while statement
    • The for statement
    • break and continue statements
    • Nested Loops
    • PEP 8 Recommendations
    • Debugging
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 6 - A short introduction to testing: Building Reliable Software
  • 7 - A deeper dive into Strings, Lists and Tuples
    • More on Strings
    • More on Lists
    • More on Tuples
    • Debugging
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 8 - A deeper look at Functions in Python
    • Function Preconditions and Postconditions
    • Positional and Keywords arguments
    • Nested Functions
    • Scope of a variable
    • Recursion
    • Functions' side effects
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 9 - Code Documentation
    • Basics of Commenting Code
    • Documenting Code via Python Docstring
  • 10 - Sets and dictionaries
    • Sets
    • Dictionaries
    • Which data structure should I use?
    • Debugging
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 11 - File I/O
    • Read/Write to a file
    • File management
    • Debugging
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 12 - Handling Errors and Exceptions
  • 13 - Writing modules
  • 14 - Classes
    • Classes and Objects
    • Classes and Functions
    • Classes and Methods
    • Pythonic Magic: Understanding and Implementing Dunder Methods
    • Glossary
    • Exercises
  • 15 - Python's Type Hinting
  • Acknowledgements
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11 - File I/O

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Last updated 1 year ago

Persistence

Most of the programs we have seen so far are transient in the sense that they run for a short time and produce some output, but when they end, their data disappears. If you run the program again, it starts with a clean slate.

Other programs are persistent: they run for a long time (or all the time); they keep at least some of their data in permanent storage (a hard drive, for example); and if they shut down and restart, they pick up where they left off.

Examples of persistent programs are operating systems, which run pretty much whenever a computer is on, and web servers, which run all the time, waiting for requests to come in on the network.

One of the simplest ways for programs to maintain their data is by reading and writing text files. Text files are a fundamental data storage and communication medium in computer science. These files contain human-readable text in the form of characters and are widely used for various purposes, ranging from data storage and configuration to data interchange.