Error when creating a new text file with python?

Question

This function doesn't work and raises an error. Do I need to change any arguments or parameters?

import sys

def write():
    print('Creating new text file') 

    name = input('Enter name of text file: ')+'.txt'  # Name of text file coerced with +.txt

    try:
        file = open(name,'r+')   # Trying to create a new file or open one
        file.close()

    except:
        print('Something went wrong! Can\'t tell what?')
        sys.exit(0) # quit Python

write()

Solution 1

If the file does not exists, open(name,'r+') will fail.

You can use open(name, 'w'), which creates the file if the file does not exist, but it will truncate the existing file.

Alternatively, you can use open(name, 'a'); this will create the file if the file does not exist, but will not truncate the existing file.

Solution 2

instead of using try-except blocks, you could use, if else

this will not execute if the file is non-existent, open(name,'r+')

if os.path.exists('location\filename.txt'):
    print "File exists"

else:
   open("location\filename.txt", 'w')

'w' creates a file if its non-exis

Solution 3

following script will use to create any kind of file, with user input as extension

import sys
def create():
    print("creating new  file")
    name=raw_input ("enter the name of file:")
    extension=raw_input ("enter extension of file:")
    try:
        name=name+"."+extension
        file=open(name,'a')

        file.close()
    except:
            print("error occured")
            sys.exit(0)

create()

Solution 4

This works just fine, but instead of

name = input('Enter name of text file: ')+'.txt' 

you should use

name = raw_input('Enter name of text file: ')+'.txt'

along with

open(name,'a') or open(name,'w')

Solution 5

import sys

def write():
    print('Creating new text file') 

    name = raw_input('Enter name of text file: ')+'.txt'  # Name of text file coerced with +.txt

    try:
        file = open(name,'a')   # Trying to create a new file or open one
        file.close()

    except:
        print('Something went wrong! Can\'t tell what?')
        sys.exit(0) # quit Python

write()

this will work promise :)

View more solutions

Comments

[mc110]

it looks like the previous answer already mentioned open(name, 'a'), so it would have been better to just add your last line as a comment

[Tom Zych]

"Inverted commas"? Do you mean single quotes? Python doesn't care whether you enclose a string in single quotes or double quotes. It only matters if the string includes a matching delimiter; enclosing it in the other kind can save having to escape the enclosed character.

[user]

Does this add anything that didn't already exist in the 2 year old answers above?

[falsetru]

The question is marked as python-3.x in which raw_input is not available.

[KI4JGT]

Neither "w" or "a" creates a new file for me.

[KI4JGT]

Stupid me didn't add the directory Desktop in my path, so I was sitting there missing a part of the file path. . .

[jfs]

to avoid modifying an existing file, 'x' could be used instead of 'w', 'a'.

[Adrian Krupa]

Tag python-3.x was added after this answer

[Musixauce3000]

He changed name=input() to name=raw_input(). Of course, that's deprecated.

[McLan]

Thanks for your answer but sadly doesn't work for me as "error occurred"!!

[Desprit]

Not following PEP. Using different indentation. Incorrectly handling exception.