How do i convert a string to a text file in python?

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Example 1: Write String to Text File
  • Example 2: Write String to Text File in Text Mode
  • Writing other than String to Text File
  • Summary

Now you can save or write string to text a file in persistent data storage using Python.

To write string to a Text File, follow these sequence of steps:

  1. Open file in write mode using open() function.
  2. Write string to the file using write() method.
  3. Close the file using close() method.

How do i convert a string to a text file in python?

Example 1: Write String to Text File

In the following example, we will take a string constant and write the string to a text file by following the above said sequence of steps.

Python Program

text_file = open("sample.txt", "w")
n = text_file.write('Welcome to pythonexamples.org')
text_file.close()

Output

29

The write() method returns the number of characters written to the text file.

Note that this kind of writing to text file, overwrites the data, if the file is already present. If the file is not present, it creates a new file and then writes the string to the file.

Example 2: Write String to Text File in Text Mode

A file can be opened in two modes: the first one is text mode and the second one is binary mode. By default a file is opened in text mode. However, you can explicitly specify the mode.

In the following example, we will open the file in text mode by appending “t” to the mode and write the string to a text file by following the sequence of steps mentioned at the start of this tutorial.

Python Program

text_file = open("sample.txt", "wt")
n = text_file.write('Welcome to pythonexamples.org')
text_file.close()

Output

29

Writing other than String to Text File

If you would like to write any Python object other than string or a bytes object to a file, using write() method, you should first convert that Python object to a string or bytes object.

Summary

In this tutorial of Python Examples, we learned how to write a string to a text file, with the help of example programs.

To write a string to a text file using Python:

text_file = open(r'path where the text file will be created\file name.txt', 'w')
my_string = 'type your string here'
text_file.write(my_string)
text_file.close()

In this short guide, you’ll see how to:

  • Write a string to a text file
  • Overwrite the original string
  • Display a list of strings in the text file using for loop
  • Deal with integers

Step 1: Specify the path for the text file

To begin, specify the path where the text file will be created.

For example, let’s suppose that a text file will be created under the following path:

C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test

Step 2: Write a string to a text file using Python

Next, write your string to the text file using this template:

text_file = open(r'path where the text file will be created\file name.txt', 'w')
my_string = 'type your string here'
text_file.write(my_string)
text_file.close()

For our example:

  • The path where the text file will be created is: C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test
  • The file name (with the txt file extension) is: Example.txt
  • my_string contains the following text: ‘This is a Test

So the full Python code would look as follows (don’t forget to place ‘r‘ before your path name to avoid any errors in the path):

text_file = open(r'C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test\Example.txt', 'w')
my_string = 'This is a Test'
text_file.write(my_string)
text_file.close()

Once you run the code (adjusted to your path), you’ll then see the new text file in your specified location.

If you open the text file, you’ll see the actual string:

This is a Test

Overwrite the String

What if you want to overwrite the original string with a new value?

For instance, what if you want to change the string to the following value:

This is a NEW Test

In that case, simply edit the text as follows:

my_string = 'This is a NEW Test'

So the new Python code would look like this:

text_file = open(r'C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test\Example.txt', 'w')
my_string = 'This is a NEW Test'
text_file.write(my_string)
text_file.close()

Run the code, and you’ll see the new string:

This is a NEW Test

List of Strings

Say that you want to display a list of strings in your text file.

Here is an example of a list with strings:

my_list = ['This is a Test', 'This is ALSO a Test', 'This is a FINAL Test']

In that case, you may use a for loop to display your list of strings in the text file:

text_file = open(r'C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test\Example.txt', 'w')
my_list = ['This is a Test', 'This is ALSO a Test', 'This is a FINAL Test']

for i in my_list:
    text_file.write(i + '\n')

text_file.close()

You’ll now see that each of the strings is presented in a new line:

This is a Test
This is ALSO a Test
This is a FINAL Test

Dealing with Integers

If you try to print integers into the text file, you’ll get the following error:

write() argument must be str, not int

You may then choose to convert the integers to strings.

For example, let’s suppose that you have two integers (3 and 5), and you want to present the sum of those integers in the text file.

In that case, you may apply the following syntax to achieve the above goal (notice that str() was used to convert the integers to strings):

text_file = open(r'C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test\Example.txt', 'w')
sum_values = 3 + 5
text_file.write(str(sum_values))
text_file.close()

You’ll then get the sum of 8 in the text file:

8

How do you write data into a text file in Python?

To write to a text file in Python, you follow these steps: First, open the text file for writing (or append) using the open() function. Second, write to the text file using the write() or writelines() method. ... Steps for writing to text files..

How do I write a string to a file?

Using writeString() method of Files class. Using write() method of Files class. Using writer() method of Filewriter class..
Create an instance of the file..
Convert the string into a byte array by using string. getBytes() method..
Lastly call method namely Files. write() with file instance and the byte array..

Can Python create a text file?

Python provides inbuilt functions for creating, writing, and reading files.

How do you read an entire string in Python?

Use file. read() to read an entire file Call file. read() to read an open text file into a string. Use str. replace() to replace all newline characters with spaces.