The io module implements the classes behind the interpreter’s built-in open() for file-based input and output operations. The classes are decomposed in such a way that they can be recombined for alternate purposes, for example to enable writing Unicode data to a network socket.

In-memory Stream



In [5]:

    
import io
import sys

# Writing to a buffer
output = io.StringIO()
output.write('This goes into the buffer. ')
print('And so does this.', file=output)

# Retrieve the value written
print(output.getvalue())

output.close()  # discard buffer memory

# Initialize a read buffer
input = io.StringIO('Inital value for read buffer')

# Read from the buffer
print(input.read())









    



This goes into the buffer. And so does this.

Inital value for read buffer



In [6]:

    
import io

# Writing to a buffer
output = io.BytesIO()
output.write('This goes into the buffer. '.encode('utf-8'))
output.write('ÁÇÊ'.encode('utf-8'))

# Retrieve the value written
print(output.getvalue())

output.close()  # discard buffer memory

# Initialize a read buffer
input = io.BytesIO(b'Inital value for read buffer')

# Read from the buffer
print(input.read())









    



b'This goes into the buffer. \xc3\x81\xc3\x87\xc3\x8a'
b'Inital value for read buffer'

Wrapping Byte Streams for Text Data



In [7]:

    
import io

# Writing to a buffer
output = io.BytesIO()
wrapper = io.TextIOWrapper(
    output,
    encoding='utf-8',
    write_through=True,
)
wrapper.write('This goes into the buffer. ')
wrapper.write('ÁÇÊ')

# Retrieve the value written
print(output.getvalue())

output.close()  # discard buffer memory

# Initialize a read buffer
input = io.BytesIO(
    b'Inital value for read buffer with unicode characters ' +
    'ÁÇÊ'.encode('utf-8')
)
wrapper = io.TextIOWrapper(input, encoding='utf-8')

# Read from the buffer
print(wrapper.read())









    



b'This goes into the buffer. \xc3\x81\xc3\x87\xc3\x8a'
Inital value for read buffer with unicode characters ÁÇÊ