File open: Is this bad Python style?

Question

To read contents of a file:

data = open(filename, \"r\").read()

The open file immediately stops being referenced anywhere, so the file obje

Answer 1

The code works exactly as you say it does, but it's bad style nevertheless. Your code relies on assumptions which may be true now, but won't always be true. It's not impossible that your code will be run in a situation where the file being opened and not close does matter. Is it really worth that risk just to save 1 or 2 lines of code? I don't think so.