How to create a new text file using Python

69
votes

I'm practicing the management of .txt files in python. I've been reading about it and found that if I try to open a file that doesn't exists yet it will create it on the same directory from where the program is being executed. The problem comes that when I try to open it, I get this error:

IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\Users\myusername\PycharmProjects\Tests\copy.txt'.

I even tried specifying a path as you can see in the error.

import os
THIS_FOLDER = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
my_file = os.path.join(THIS_FOLDER, 'copy.txt')
4
pythonpython-2.7
We cannot tell you what error you have in your code if you don't show us your code. - John Anderson
@JohnAnderson done. - Just Half
@JustHalf This code doesn't raise an error when I run it in PyCharm? - G_M
That code doesn't open a file, it just creates a path object. - John Anderson
The IDE you're using is irrelevant here. It does not affect the behavior of Python code that you run from it. - yole

4 Answers

146
votes

Looks like you forgot the mode parameter when calling open, try w:

file = open("copy.txt", "w") 
file.write("Your text goes here") 
file.close()

The default value is r and will fail if the file does not exist

'r' open for reading (default)
'w' open for writing, truncating the file first

Other interesting options are 

'x' open for exclusive creation, failing if the file already exists
'a' open for writing, appending to the end of the file if it exists

See Doc for Python2.7 or Python3.6

-- EDIT --

As stated by chepner in the comment below, it is better practice to do it with a withstatement (it guarantees that the file will be closed)

with open("copy.txt", "w") as file:
    file.write("Your text goes here")
9
votes
# Method 1
f = open("Path/To/Your/File.txt", "w")   # 'r' for reading and 'w' for writing
f.write("Hello World from " + f.name)    # Write inside file 
f.close()                                # Close file 

# Method 2
with open("Path/To/Your/File.txt", "w") as f:   # Opens file and casts as f 
    f.write("Hello World form " + f.name)       # Writing
    # File closed automatically

There are many more methods but these two are most common. Hope this helped!

0
votes
f = open("Path/To/Your/File.txt", "w")   # 'r' for reading and 'w' for writing
f.write("Hello World from " + f.name)    # Write inside file 
f.close()                                # Close file 

# Method 2shush
with open("Path/To/Your/File.txt", "w") as f:   # Opens file and casts as f 
    f.write("Hello World form " + f.name)       # Writing
# File closed automatically
-1
votes
    file = open("path/of/file/(optional)/filename.txt", "w") #a=append,w=write,r=read
    any_string = "Hello\nWorld"
    file.write(any_string)
    file.close()