read¶

Description¶

Returns specified amount of bytes from the file.

Syntax¶

file. read([size])

size: Optional. Reads at most size bytes from the file (less if the read hits EOF before obtaining size bytes). If the size argument is negative or omitted, reads all data until EOF is reached.

Remarks¶

The bytes are returned as a string object. An empty string is returned when EOF is encountered immediately. (For certain files, like ttys, it makes sense to continue reading after an EOF is hit.)

Note that this method may call the underlying C function fread() more than once in an effort to acquire as close to size bytes as possible. Also note that when in non-blocking mode, less data than was requested may be returned, even if no size parameter was given.

Note¶

This function is simply a wrapper for the underlying fread() C function, and will behave the same in corner cases, such as whether the EOF value is cached.

Return Value¶

None

Time Complexity¶

#TODO

Example¶

>>> f.read(8)
'        '
>>> f.read(128)
"        ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND\n\n                          Lewis Carroll\n\n               THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION"
>>> f.read() # this returns contents of the whole file