What Is Exclusive Creation In Python

Exclusive creation is a file mode in Python that allows a file to be created only if it does not already exist. In Python, exclusive creation mode is denoted by the character ‘x‘. If a file with the specified name already exists, attempting to open it in exclusive creation mode will result in a FileExistsError exception. This article will tell you how to use it with examples.

1. Python File Exclusive Creation Mode Examples.

1. To open a file in exclusive creation mode in Python, you can use the open() function with the ‘x‘ mode. Here’s an example.

   >>> try:
   ...     with open('new_file.txt', 'x') as file:
   ...         file.write('This is a new file.')
   ...         print('File created successfully.')
   ... except FileExistsError:
   ...     print('File already exists.')
   ... 
   19
   File created successfully.

2. In this example, we use a try–except block to catch the FileExistsError exception that is raised if the file already exists.
3. We use the open() function with the exclusive creation mode ('x') to create a new file named 'new_file.txt'.
4. If the file already exists, the open() function will raise a FileExistsError exception, which we catch in the except block and print a message saying that the file already exists.
5. If the file does not exist, we write some text to it using the write() method and print a message saying that the file was created successfully.
6. Note that if you run this code again, it will fail because the file already exists.

   >>> try:
   ...     with open('new_file.txt', 'x') as file:
   ...         file.write('This is a new file.')
   ...         print('File created successfully.')
   ... except FileExistsError:
   ...     print('File already exists.')
   ... 
   File already exists.

7. Now you can open the newly created file and see it’s content using the below python code.

   >>> with open('./new_file.txt', 'r') as file:
   ...     file_content = file.read()
   ...     print(file_content)  
   ... 
   This is a new file.

References

1. How To Read, Write, Append Binary Files In Python.