从中读取，然后替换.txt文件中的所有文本

Question

I'm very new to Python (and coding in general, if I'm honest) and decided to learn by dipping into the Twitter API to make a weird Twitterbot that scrambles the words in a tweet and reposts them, _ebooks style.

Anyway, the way I have it currently set up, it pulls the latest tweet and then compares it to a .txt file with the previous tweet. If the tweet and the .txt file match (ie, not a new tweet), it does nothing. If they don't, it replaces the .txt file with the current tweet, then scrambles and posts it. I feel like there's got to be a better way to do this than what I'm doing. Here's the relevant code:

words = hank[0]['text']
target = open("hank.txt", "r")
if words == "STOP":
    print "Sam says stop :'("
    return
else:
    if words == target.read():
        print "Nothing New."
    else:
        target.close()
        target = open("hank.txt", "w")
        target.write(words)
        target.close()

Obviously, opening as 'r' just to check it against the tweet, closing, and re-opening as 'w' is not very efficient. However, if I open as 'w+' it deletes all the contents of the file when I read it, and if I open it as 'r+', it adds the new tweet either to the beginning or the end of the file (dependent on where I set the pointer, obviously). I am 100% sure I am missing something TOTALLY obvious, but after hours of googling and dredging through Python documentation, I haven't found anything simpler. Any help would be more than welcome haha. :)

Answer 1

I suggest you use yield to compare hank.txt and words line by line so that more memory space could be saved, if you are so focused on efficiency. As for file operation, I don't think there is a better way in overwriting a file. If you are using Linux, maybe 'cat > hank.txt' could be faster. Just a guess.

Answer 2

with open(filename, "r+") as f: data = f.read()// Redaing the data //any comparison of tweets etc.. f.truncate()//here basically it clears the file. f.seek(0)// setting the pointer f.write("most recent tweet")// writing to the file

No need to close the file instance, it automatically closes. Just read python docs on these methods used for a more clear picture.