Creating a temporary file

Python:
Creating a temporary file

How to:

Python’s tempfile module is built for this. Check out how it works:

import tempfile

# Create a temporary file and write something to it
with tempfile.TemporaryFile(mode='w+t') as tf:
    # Write a string to the temp file
    tf.write('Python is fun!')
    # Go back to the start of the file before reading
    tf.seek(0)
    # Read what we wrote
    print(tf.read())  # Outputs: Python is fun!

# And just like that, the file is gone when you're out of the block

This code uses a context manager to handle the file, which automatically cleans up after itself. No lingering files!

Deep Dive:

Temp files aren’t new. They’ve been used since the dawn of computing to hold ephemeral data. Python’s tempfile module handles the dirty details like generating unique names and removing the files when done. If you want even more control, there’s NamedTemporaryFile, which you can reference by a name during its short life. But remember, its purpose is to be temporary:

import tempfile

# Create a named temporary file
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=True) as ntf:
    print(f'Temp file name is: {ntf.name}')  # It has an actual name!

# Still, it vanishes after use

And why not use regular files? Simple: Using tempfile saves you from clutter and potential conflicts — imagine your script rerunning and the same file name being reused. Messy, right?

Python:Creating a temporary file

How to:

Deep Dive:

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Python:
Creating a temporary file