On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:25:21 +1100, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 05:45:24 +0000, Avi Kak wrote:
>
>> Hello:
>>
>> Does Python support a peek like method for its file objects?
>>
>> I'd like to be able to look at the next byte in a disk file before
>> deciding whether I should read it with, say, the read() method.
>> Is it possible to do so in Python?
>
>
> # WARNING: untested
Yes, and also completely broken. I don't know what I was thinking. Sigh.
Try this (also untested, but not so obviously broken):
fp = file("some file on disk", "r") # should work in text mode
b = ""
while 1:
# peek at the next byte
c = fp.read(1)
# decide whether to read it
if c == "?":
# pretend we never read the byte
fp.seek(-1, 1) # but be careful in text mode!
break
# now read the byte "for real"
b = c
if not b:
# we've reached the end of the file
break
fp.close()
--
Steven.
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