How to set up and read files using Python

When you start writing Python applications, you usually need a way to configure the settings of your application, such as database connection information, API keys, etc. Using configuration files is a common approach, while INI files are a simple and common configuration file format. In this article, I will explain how to set up and read configuration files in INI format using Python.

Create a file

First, we need to create an INI format configuration file. We will use the following structure as an example:

[database]
host = localhost
port = 5432
username = myusername
password = mypassword

[api]
key = myapikey
url = 

In this example, we have two parts:[database]and[api], each section is the relevant key-value pairs.

Setting up files

Let's see how to set up files in Python. We will use Python's built-in modulesconfigparserTo achieve this.

import configparser

def create_config():
    config = ()
    
    # Set the database part    config['database'] = {
        'host': 'localhost',
        'port': '5432',
        'username': 'myusername',
        'password': 'mypassword'
    }
    
    # Set the API section    config['api'] = {
        'key': 'myapikey',
        'url': ''
    }
    
    # Write to file    with open('', 'w') as configfile:
        (configfile)

create_config()

This code creates a code calledfile and populated with the same value as we saw in the previous INI file example.

Read the file

Now let's see how to read files in Python.

import configparser

def read_config():
    config = ()
    ('')
    
    # Read database configuration    db_host = ('database', 'host')
    db_port = ('database', 'port')
    db_username = ('database', 'username')
    db_password = ('database', 'password')
    
    # Read API configuration    api_key = ('api', 'key')
    api_url = ('api', 'url')
    
    return db_host, db_port, db_username, db_password, api_key, api_url

db_host, db_port, db_username, db_password, api_key, api_url = read_config()

print("Database Configuration:")
print(f"Host: {db_host}")
print(f"Port: {db_port}")
print(f"Username: {db_username}")
print(f"Password: {db_password}")

print("\nAPI Configuration:")
print(f"Key: {api_key}")
print(f"URL: {api_url}")

This code will openfile and read the configuration in it. It then takes the corresponding key-value pairs from each section and stores them in the corresponding variable. Finally, the read configuration information is printed out.

This is the end of this article about how to set up and read files using Python. For more related Python settings and reading content, please search for my previous articles or continue browsing the related articles below. I hope everyone will support me in the future!