File Handling (OCR GCSE Computer Science): Revision Note
Exam code: J277
File Handling
What is file handling?
- File handling is the use of programming techniques to work with information stored in text files 
- Examples of file handing techniques are: - opening text files 
- reading text files 
- writing text files 
- closing text files 
 
| Concept | OCR exam reference | Python | 
|---|---|---|
| Open | 
 | 
 | 
| Close | 
 | 
 | 
| Read line | 
 | 
 | 
| Write line | 
 | 
 | 
| End of file | 
 | 
 | 
| Create a new file | 
 | 
 | 
| Append a file | 
 | 
 | 
Python example (reading data)
| Employees | Text file | 
|---|---|
| 
 
 
 | Greg | 
Python example (writing new data)
| Employees | 
 | 
| 
 
 | Greg | 
Examiner Tips and Tricks
When opening files it is really important to make sure you use the correct letter in the open command
- "r" is for reading from a file only 
- "w" is for writing to a new file, if the file does not exist it will be created. If a file with the same name exists the contents will be overwritten 
- "a" is for writing to the end of an existing file only 
Always make a backup of text files you are working with, one mistake and you can lose the contents!
Worked Example
Use pseudocode to write an algorithm that does the following :
- Inputs the title and year of a book from the user. 
- Permanently stores the book title and year to the existing text file books.txt [4] 
How to answer this question
- Write two input statements (title and year of book) 
- Open the file 
- Write inputs to file 
- Close the file 
Example answer
title = input("Enter title")
year = input("Enter year")
file = open("books.txt")
file.writeline(title)
file.writeline(year)
file.close()
Guidance
- title = input("Enter title")1 mark for both- year = input("Enter year")
- file = open("books.txt")1 mark
- file.writeline(title)1 mark for both
file.writeline(year)
- file.close()1 mark
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