11.9. Glossary¶

open: You must open a file before you can read its contents.
close: When you are done with a file, you should close it.
read: Will read the entire contents of a file as a string. This is often used in an assignment statement so that a variable can reference the contents of the file.
readline: Will read a single line from the file, up to and including the first instance of the newline character.
readlines: Will read the entire contents of a file into a list where each line of the file is a string and is an element in the list.
write: Will add characters to the end of a file that has been opened for writing.
absolute file path: The name of a file that includes a path to the file from the root directory of a file system. An absolute file path always starts with a /.
relative file path: The name of a file that includes a path to the file from the current working directory of a program. An relative file path never starts with a /.