[praditmodi]

Why is this happening?

f = open('c:\ndfa.txt')

shows an error while

 f = open ('c:\log.txt')

executes both the files are in the same drive ?

[Vblaster]

In your directory screenshot the files are log and ndfa, not log.txt and ndfa.txt

Try removing the .txt extension from the open command.

[praditmodi]

neither of them executes if i remove the .txt extension

[Vblaster]

Try it with a mode argument eg. f = open('log.txt', 'r') for read or f = open('log.txt', 'w') for write.

[Simown]

When using backslashes, such as in your pathname, you need to escape them from the interpreter:

Escaping the backslash:

f = open('C:\\myfile.txt')

Using a raw string:

f = open(r'C:\myfile.txt')

You don't need to use an absolute path when specifying a filename, a relative path will work fine, especially if the file is "close".

This post has been edited by Simown: 24 January 2012 - 08:10 PM

[Vblaster]

My Bad. Is that a windows problem only?( linux uses forward slashes )?

[Simown]

It's not a windows only problem, but by using forward slashes/back slashes, you risk making the program bound to a single operating system. A more elegant solution would be to use os.path.join() to construct a path, in the os module of the Python standard library. That way your program would build the directory to your file OS-independent, so, it will run on Windows and Linux.

This post has been edited by Simown: 24 January 2012 - 08:24 PM

[praditmodi]

f = open(r'C:\ndfa.txt')

Thanks Simown it did work; and what was the thing you said about escaping the backslash ?
what i understood was that in order to escape from the backslash we should raw string ?

[Simown]

They are both ways of escaping backslashes, an escaped backslash tells Python to treat it as a backlash, not some other special character with a different semantic meaning.

Consider the path:

'A\B\C\D....\Z\'

That could be:

'A\\B\\C\\D....\\Z\\'

Or:

r'A\B\C\D....\Z\'

The previous two examples mean exactly the same thing!

No, you don't need to escape it AND have a raw string, you can use one or the other - it's your personal preference.

It can get cluttered if you have more escaped characters in a string, I prefer to use raw strings most of the time myself.

This post has been edited by Simown: 24 January 2012 - 08:49 PM

[praditmodi]

Thank You Simown ! Helped a lot !

[Simown]

You're welcome