File handling in Python lets you open, read, write, append, and modify files.

Note: For the sake of this tutorial, we will assume that your text file and Python code are present in the same directory.

Before we perform any operation on a file, we need to open the file. This is done using the open() function.

Example: Let's say we have a text file (someText.txt) with some content in it. The open() function creates a file object with a read() method for reading the content.

file = open("someText.txt")
print(file.read())

Output:

lorem ipsum

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There are various modes in which we can open files.

• read (r): This mode opens the file for reading only and gives an error if the file does not exist. This is the default mode if no mode is passed as a parameter.
• write (w): This mode opens the file for writing only and creates a new file if the file does not exist.
• append (a): This mode opens the file for appending only and creates a new file if the file does not exist.
• create (x): This mode creates a file and gives an error if the file already exists.

Apart from these modes, we also need to specify how the file must be handled:

• text (t): Used to handle text files.
• binary (b): Used to handle binary files (images).