StringIO

The StringIO module implements an in-memory file like object. This object can then be used as input or output to most functions that would expect a standard file object.

The best way to show this is by example:



In [1]:

    
import StringIO



In [16]:

    
# Arbitrary String
message = 'This is just a normal string.'



In [25]:

    
# Use StringIO method to set as file object
f = StringIO.StringIO(message)

Now we have an object f that we will be able to treat just like a file. For example:



In [30]:

    
f.read()









    Out[30]:





''

We can also write to it:



In [27]:

    
f.write(' Second line written to file like object')



In [28]:

    
# Reset cursor just like you would a file
f.seek(0)



In [29]:

    
# Read again
f.read()









    Out[29]:





'This is just a normal string. Second line written to file like object'

Great! Now you've seen how we can use StringIO to turn normal strings into in-memory file objects in our code. This kind of action has various use cases, especially in web scraping cases where you want to read some string you scraped as a file.

For more info on StringIO check out the documentation:https://docs.python.org/2/library/stringio.html