I have a Python codebase, built for Python 3, which uses Python 3 style open() with encoding parameter:
https://github.com/miohtama/vvv/blob/master/vvv/textlineplugin.py#L47
with open(fname, "rt", encoding="utf-8") as f:
Now I'd like to backport this code to Python 2.x, so that I would have a codebase which works with Python 2 and Python 3.
What's the recommended strategy to work around open()
differences and lack of encoding parameter?
Could I have a Python 3 open()
style file handler which streams bytestrings, so it would act like Python 2 open()
?
If you only need to support Python 2.6 and 2.7 you can use io.open
instead of open
. io
is the new io subsystem for Python 3, and it exists in Python 2,6 ans 2.7 as well. Please be aware that in Python 2.6 (as well as 3.0) it's implemented purely in python and very slow, so if you need speed in reading files, it's not a good option.
If you need speed, and you need to support Python 2.6 or earlier, you can use codecs.open
instead. It also has an encoding parameter, and is quite similar to io.open
except it handles line-endings differently.
open()
style file handler which streams bytestrings:open(filename, 'rb')
Note the 'b', meaning 'binary'.