Why does the function file_object.readlines() return code and not text?

[zakbrown0308]

Okay, I just began a bit of a python phase, and I want some help. You'll probably be hearing from me quite a bit in the next few weeks. Anyway, my question is about I/O functions. Specifically when it comes to opening and closing text documents. I have successfully opened a file (which I called file_object), and when I print the readlines() function, I get a bunch of code, not the text from my document. And yes, I did use seek() to place my cursor. So, any suggestions?

 

[zakbrown0308]

Oh yeah, and the code in this case looks something like this:
ÐÏࡱ

 

[Mark44]

Is the file you are opening a text file or a binary file? The output you show makes me think the file is a binary file.

It would be more helpful if you showed your code.

 

[zakbrown0308]

And oops! That was the wrong example. The code that *I* wrote looks like this:

opendoc = open ("theRaven.doc", "r")

opendoc.seek(0,0)

print opendoc.readlines ()



And the function returned a code like this:

['\xd0\xcf\x11\xe0\xa1\xb1']

 

[rcgldr]

A "doc" file has binary information in as well as text. You should retry your program with a .txt file.

 

[zakbrown0308]

Ah. That seems to have done it. Thank you.