Reading binary files

[amfr]

On windows, is there anything special I have to do to read a binary
file correctly?

 

[Grant Edwards]

On windows, is there anything special I have to do to read a binary
file correctly?

Open it in binary mode?

 

[Fredrik Lundh]

On windows, is there anything special I have to do to read a binary
file correctly?

the documentation has the answer:

http://docs.python.org/lib/built-in-funcs.html#l2h-25

Append 'b' to the mode to open the file in binary mode, on
systems that differentiate between binary and text files (else it
is ignored). /.../

When opening a binary file, you should append 'b' to the
mode value for improved portability. (It's useful even on
systems which don't treat binary and text files differently,
where it serves as documentation.)

in other words, always use

f = open(filename, "rb")

to open binary files for reading, on all platforms (but it only matters
on some platforms). to open for writing, use

f = open(filename, "wb") # create new file

or

f = open(filename, "r+b") # open existing file for read/write

</F>