Python invalid syntax with "with" statement

Question

I am working on writing a simple python application for linux (maemo). However I am getting SyntaxError: invalid syntax on line 23: with open(file,'w') as fileh:

The code can be seen here: http://pastebin.com/MPxfrsAp

I can not figure out what is wrong with my code, I am new to python and the "with" statement. So, what is causing this code to error, and how can I fix it? Is it something wrong with the "with" statement?

Thanks!

same problem on Python 3.6.8 on Oracle Linux 8 (supported til 2029) — KJ7LNW
– KJ7LNW, Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 4:55

Daniel Stutzbach · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-03 02:45:27Z

26

Most likely, you are using an earlier version of Python that doesn't support the with statement. Here's how to do the same thing without using with:

fileh = open(file, 'w')
try:
    # Do things with fileh here
finally:
    fileh.close()

answered May 3, 2010 at 2:45

Daniel Stutzbach

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8 Comments

lanrat Over a year ago

This worked, thanks! However now I am getting a problem with the open function, the file does not exist. I want it to create the file if it does not exist. How should I do that? (I was under the impression that the open function could create the file too)

John Machin Over a year ago

@mrlanrat: show your code and the error message that led you to believe that the problem is a non-existent file

Mike Graham Over a year ago

@mrlanrat, Python by default will create nonexistant files. The problem is the directory. ~./appCounter is not a valid directory. Python doesn't autoexpand ~ like the shell does and you have a misplaced .. You probably want to use the path os.path.join(os.path.expanduser("~"), "appCounter") or something like that.

Mike Graham Over a year ago

Note that with was introduced in 2.5 requiring from __future__ import with_statement and by default in 2.6. In 2.4 and previous, try/finally is required to ensure a file gets closed.

Mike Graham Over a year ago

@mrlanrat, open(filename, 'w') does that. Did you read what I said about Python not automatically invoking the shell to expand ~?

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