What is StringIO in python used for in reality?

Question

I am not a pro and I have been scratching my head over understanding what exactly StringIO is used for. I have been looking around the internet for some examples. However, almos

Answer 1

I've used it in place of text files for unit-testing.

For example, to make a csv 'file' for testing with pandas (Python 3):

import io
f = io.StringIO("id,name\n1,brian\n2,amanda\n3,zoey\n")
df = pd.read_csv(f) # pandas takes a file path or a file-like object

From the documentation here:

An in-memory stream for text I/O. The text buffer is discarded when the close() method is called.

The initial value of the buffer can be set by providing initial_value.

method getvalue(): Return a str containing the entire contents of the buffer.