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

No, it's perfectly reasonable Python style IMO, as per your reasoning.

Update: There are a lot of comments here about whether file objects get tidied up straight away or not. Rather than speculate, I did some digging. Here's what I see:

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From a comment in Python's object.h:

The macros Py_INCREF(op) and Py_DECREF(op) are used to increment or decrement reference counts. Py_DECREF calls the object's deallocator function when the refcount falls to 0

Looking in Python's fileobject.c:

The function table for file objects points to function file_dealloc. This function calls close_the_file, which in turn closes the file.

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So it seems reasonable to state that at the moment, on CPython, when there are no more references to a file object, it's closed without any delay. If you think this interpretation is wrong, please post a comment indicating why you feel that way.