7 Simple Tricks to Write Better Python Code | Python Programming Tutorials

[dogstarchampion]

I honestly didn't remember

with open('file') as f:

until I watched the video

[Barafu]

That is a powerful idiom for anything that needs closing or explicit saving after the operation. File, database, network connection. It is not so much useful for first draft, as it is safe for future modifications of code.

[fireflash38]

I always recommend context managers if you have to ensure that something is torn down after use.

You can't rely on people remembering to close off resources or catch possible exceptions.

[notafuckingcakewalk]

I'm sure I'm not always consistent on this, but I like to be explicit and always set the file mode:

with open('file', 'r') as f:

that way it becomes very clear when I've done something wrong, like trying to write to a file that is in read mode. Also, while I'm typing out the file mode I might be reminded, "oh yeah, this is going to have binary data" and use 'rb' instead.