Asking for Help/Why when I read a text file python reads it as “<built-in method read of _io.TextIOWrapper object at 0x02954558>” and how do I stop this?¶
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Asking for Help: Why when I read a text file python reads it as “<built-in method read of _io.TextIOWrapper object at 0x02954558>” and how do I stop this?¶
I am writing a program that uses text files to store user information like their name and password. I am using this information to check login info against the info they have provided. This never worked so I decided to do a simple open files program to find the problem.
1 f = open('test.txt', 'r')
2 a = f.read
3 f.close
4 print(a)
and when I ran it on Idle it printed: <built-in method read of _io.TextIOWrapper object at 0x02954558> Instead of what I had in my text file. Does anyone know why this is happening or how to stop it?
You have to actually call the read{.backtick} method as follows:
a = f.read()
The brackets are important because they tell Python to actually call the method, and this produces the content of the file to be assigned to a{.backtick}. If you don’t have the brackets, all you are doing is obtaining the read{.backtick} method and assigning it to a{.backtick}. Thus, when you print a{.backtick} you see a piece of text describing the method (which is what <built-in method read of _io.TextIOWrapper object at 0x02954558>{.backtick} means) instead of the content of the file.
So the point to remember is this: referring to the method (like with f.read{.backtick}) just lets you obtain the method, but if you want to call the method, you have to add brackets. The following also works:
method = f.read
a = method()
Here, we split up the part where you get the method from the part where you call the method. There really are two different things going on. – PaulBoddie 2011-12-17 18:41:14