Python function that accepts file object or path

Question

I want to write a function that accepts either a path as a string or a file object. So far I have:

def awesome_parse(path_or_file):
    if isinstance(path_or         


        

Answer 1

You could do:

def awesome_parse(do_stuff):
    """Decorator to open a filename passed to a function
       that requires an open file object"""
    def parse_path_or_file(path_or_file):
        """Use a ternary expression to either open the file from the filename
           or just pass the extant file object on through"""
        with (open(path_or_file, 'rb') 
               if isinstance(path_or_file, basestring) 
                else path_or_file) as f:
            return do_stuff(f)
    return parse_path_or_file

And then when you declare any function that does stuff on an open file object:

@awesome_parse
def do_things(open_file_object):
    """This will always get an open file object even if passed a string"""
    pass

@awesome_parse
def do_stuff(open_file_object):
    """So will this"""
    pass

Edit 2: More detailed info on the decorator.