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1. Read File2. Write File3. Append to File4. Read CSV File5. Write CSV File6. JSON Read7. JSON Write8. File Copy9. File Rename10. Read Binary File11. Write Binary File12. Count Words in File13. Count Lines in File14. Count Characters in File15. Search Substring in File16. Iterate File Lines17. File Metadata18. File Compression19. File Decompression20. Delete File

File Compression in Python

Compress a text file using the gzip module.

IntermediateFile Handling ProgramsExample 18 of 20
file-compression.py
1# Program to compress a text file using gzip
2

3import gzip
4

5src = input("Enter source text filename: ")
6dst = input("Enter destination gzip filename: ")
7

8try:
9    with open(src, "rb") as f_in, gzip.open(dst, "wb") as f_out:
10        f_out.writelines(f_in)
11    print("Compressed", src, "to", dst)
12except FileNotFoundError:
13    print("Source file not found.")

Output

Enter source text filename: notes.txt
Enter destination gzip filename: notes.txt.gz
Compressed notes.txt to notes.txt.gz

What's going on

gzip.open with 'wb' creates a gzip-compressed file; we stream bytes from the source file into it.

After this program

If the idea is still fuzzy, read Day 14: File Handling in the Python course. For a short check, try the Python quiz (300 questions). Stay with all 20 file handling programs, or see every topic on Python exercises.

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