Why can't i write to a file in python 3?

Question

When I run,

Text = "Hello"
newFileName = (input("What would you like to name this file? "))
newFile = open(newFileName, 'w')
newFile.write(Text)
print("Saved as ", newFileName, "!")

It makes the file. However the file is empty. Does anyone know whats wrong here?

it's not empty for me, can you write what exactly did you type in input? also prefer with open(newFileName, 'w') as f: since it handles closing the file and etc. — LiorA
– LiorA, Commented Sep 25, 2018 at 18:01

jmd_dk · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-25 18:11:34Z

1

You have to close the file object newFile, otherwise the buffer that you are really writing to when you call newFile.write() might not get flushed to the actual file on disk. That is, add this line at the end:

newFile.close()

Python has a nice construct for dealing with this "setting up and tearing down" logic, known as context managers, used by the with statement. Using this, you can change your code to

Text = "Hello"
newFileName = input("What would you like to name this file? ")
with open(newFileName, 'w') as newFile:
    newFile.write(Text)
print("Saved as ", newFileName, "!")

When the with block is done, the file is automatically closed, even if some error happens in the middle.

answered Sep 25, 2018 at 18:11

jmd_dk

13.2k11 gold badges71 silver badges104 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Why can't i write to a file in python 3?

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related