directory as the .
py file we’re writing, the filename is all that Path needs to
access the file.
NOTE VS Code looks for files in the folder that was most recently opened. If you’re using VS
Code, start by opening the folder where you’re storing this chapter’s programs. For
example, if you’re saving your program files in a folder called chapter_10, press
CTRL-O (⌘-O on macOS), and open that folder.
Once we have a Path object representing pi_digits.txt, we use the read_text()
method to read the entire contents of the file 2. The contents of the file are
returned as a single string, which we assign to the variable contents. When we
print the value of contents, we see the entire contents of the text file:
3.1415926535
8979323846
2643383279
The only difference between this output and the original file is the
extra blank line at the end of the output. The blank line appears because
read_text() returns an empty string when it reaches the end of the file; this
empty string shows up as a blank line.
We can remove the extra blank line by using rstrip() on the contents
string:
from pathlib import Path
path = Path('pi_digits.txt')
contents = path.read_text()
contents = [Link]()
print(contents)
Recall from Chapter 2 that Python’s rstrip() method removes, or strips,
any whitespace characters from the right side of a string. Now the output
matches the contents of the original file exactly:
3.1415926535
8979323846
2643383279
We can strip the trailing newline character when we read the con-
tents of the file, by applying the rstrip() method immediately after calling
read_text():
contents = path.read_text().rstrip()
This line tells Python to call the read_text() method on the file we’re
working with. Then it applies the rstrip() method to the string that read
_text() returns. The cleaned-up string is then assigned to the variable
contents. This approach is called method chaining, and you’ll see it used often
in programming.
Files and Exceptions 185