The read() Method

The method read() reads at most size bytes from the file. If the read hits EOF before obtaining size bytes, then it reads only available bytes.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for read() method:

fileObject.read( size )

Parameters

• size − This is the number of bytes to be read from the file.

Return Value

This method returns the bytes read in string.

The following example shows the usage of read() method.

Assuming that 'foo.txt' file contains the following text −

This is 1st line
This is 2nd line
This is 3rd line
This is 4th line
This is 5th line

Example

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r+")
print ("Name of the file: ", fo.name)
line = fo.read(10)
print ("Read Line: %s" % (line))

# Close the opened file
fo.close()

When we run the above program, it produces the following output −

Name of the file: foo.txt
Read Line: This is 1s