Understanding the Python 'with' statement

Question

I\'m trying to understand if there is there a difference between these, and what that difference might be.

Option One:

file_obj = open(\'test.txt\',          


        

Answer 1

There is no difference between the two - either way the file is closed when you exit the with block.

The second example you give is the typical way the files are used in Python 2.6 and newer (when the with syntax was added).

You can verify that the first example also works in a REPL session like this:

>>> file_obj = open('test.txt', 'r')
>>> file_obj.closed
False
>>> with file_obj as in_file:
...     print in_file.readlines()

>>> file_obj.closed
True

So after the with blocks exits, the file is closed.

Normally the second example is how you would do this sort of thing, though.

There's no reason to create that extra variable file_obj... anything that you might want to do with it after the end of the with block you could just use in_file for, because it's still in scope.

>>> in_file