Differentiate between w and w+ file modes in Python. What happens if the file does not exist in each mode?

Answer:

Answer by student

The w mode is used to open a file for writing only . It will overwrite the existing file if it exists, or create a new file if it does not exist.

The w+ mode is used to open a file for both writing and reading . It will also overwrite the existing file if it exists, or create a new file if it does not exist.

Detailed answer by teachoo

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  • In Python, we can use the open() function to open a file for different purposes, such as reading, writing or appending. The function takes two arguments: the file name and the mode .
  • The mode specifies how we want to access the file. There are different modes available, such as r , w , a , r+ , w+ , a+ , etc. Each mode has a different meaning and behavior.
  • The w mode is used to open a file for writing only . This means that we can only write data to the file, but not read from it. If the file already exists, it will be overwritten with the new data . If the file does not exist, it will be created automatically.
  • The w+ mode is used to open a file for both writing and reading. This means that we can write data to the file as well as read from it. If the file already exists, it will also be overwritten with the new data. If the file does not exist, it will also be created automatically.
  • The main difference between w and w+ modes is that the latter allows us to read from the file as well as write to it , while the former only allows us to write to it .

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